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| Sand from a frack job in Sheshequin Township, Bradford County PA blows towards a home where children live, only 1,000 ft away. (photo from Carol French) |
It takes a lot of sand to frack a gas well – about 4 million
pounds of sand to prop open the newly created fractures in the rock to allow
gas trapped in the shale to escape. The problem is, that sand is very fine…
crystals of silica that, if inhaled, can contribute to a range of health
problems. And you don’t have to be working the frack trucks to pay the price,
some people are finding.
Some residents who live near the frack sand mines in
Wisconsin have started suffering from asthma and other respiratory conditions.
Other problems, such as silicosis and cancer, won’t show up for years or even
decades. Federal safety standards protect workers, but not the general public
who may be exposed to the sand unwittingly. While workers know they’re being
exposed and have access to protective gear, children and other people don’t. And,
as one environmental health expert discovered, in some cases the public is
exposed to levels that exceed federal occupational health standards. Read more here.
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