Originally published June 25 2014
Water contaminated with fracking chemicals disrupt human hormones
by PF Louis
(NaturalNews) Disrupting shale deep within the earth with millions of gallons of water brought into fracking sites mixed with toxic chemicals that remain secret is like playing survival roulette with local inhabitants and Mother Earth.
The one federal law that could have inhibited this vile practice, the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act, became inapplicable to fracking due to the Energy Policy Act of 2005.
Vice President Dick Cheney was influential toward providing this fracking exemption act from safe water concerns. He was the CEO of Halliburton, a multitask corporation also heavily involved with fracking.
Burdened with an uneven playing field, small environmental groups and scientists who haven't sold out are attempting to deal with a large corporate/government monolith rife with corruption, while the media regards the fracking issue as a "debate," much like they regard the GMO issue instead of as an issue of survival.
Industry lies and secrets with government support
Thanks to an act passed in 1979 and amended in 1985 known as the Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA), frackers don't need to disclose their chemical components and formulations to any person, group or agency until they're released for public knowledge.
This happens to be true for all polluting industries, including those that manufacture herbicides and pesticides, like Monsanto's Roundup.
This exemption was challenged to no avail by four environmental groups in Wyoming that applied for disclosure of fracking materials from the Wyoming Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. The judge ruled that the trade secrets should remain intact until further legislation modified the act itself. Fat chance of that.
It's well known without industry disclosures that benzene and acrylamide are common cancer-causing constituents of fracking chemicals. But there are up to 600 others from which frackers choose.
Analyzing materials to determine their chemical composition is not illegal. But it takes time and money, and the government/corporate merger that's pillaging the earth and destroying the environment for big bucks has enough of both to overwhelm the efforts of concerned citizens.
But, thanks to funding from the Passport Foundation Science Innovation Fund, the University of Missouri and the EPA for a doctoral research grant, PhD student Christopher Kassotis discovered, "The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects."
These same isolated chemicals disrupt not only the human body's reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid hormone, which affects mostly cellular carbohydrate metabolism. The chemicals also adversely affect thyroid hormone receptors.
Kossitis mentions how these chemicals can combine to offer a synergistic toxic mix that's worse than any one of the isolated chemicals tested.
Kassotis' samples were from documented fracking spills in Garfield County, Colorado. Normally, the water-chemical mix used is removed from the fracking site area, as that water, millions of gallons, winds up permanently contaminated. Water shortages, who cares? But sometimes Murphy's Law intervenes and accidents do happen.
Since fracking often occurs up to 8,000 feet deep and groundwater runs at around 1,000 feet under ground level, who knows how much is getting into drinking water? It's documented that well contamination is common.
Parts 1 and 2 of the documentary Gasland by Josh Fox are highly recommended viewing. Ignore the attacks and questions about them. Unless you are a true believer of what the corporate-government-media throws your way, of course.
One of the fracking victims interviewed in the first documentary was a rural homeowner whose well was contaminated. The fracking group involved donated an oversized reverse osmosis machine. But the machine was rotted out by the chemicals very quickly. So now he has city water delivered by tanker trucks.
Contrary to industry shills' claims, those images of tap water burning from the faucets of homes with contaminated wells are not staged.
As fracking continues, disrupting hormones may turn out to be but one major consequence of many.
Sources for this article include:
http://www.newswise.com
http://www.gaslandthemovie.com
http://rt.com
http://www.law.cornell.edu
http://rt.com
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