Past President of American Public Health Association: "Cattle That Drank The Fracking Fluid Actually Died An Hour After Drinking It"

http://libertyfight.com/2016/fracking-fluid-cows-died.html

By Martin Hill
LibertyFight.com
May 2, 2016

The aftermath of recent floods in Texas have raised concernes about contamination of oil fracturing fluid throughout the region.

The El Paso Times reports:

"Scores of photographs taken by state emergency-management officials show that when floodwaters rise in Texas, they inundate oil wells and fracking sites, sweeping crude and noxious chemicals into rivers throughout the Lone Star State...It's hard to draw definite conclusions simply by looking at photographs, but after reviewing a few, one expert said the spills could be deadly.

"That's a potential disaster," said Walter Tsou, a physician and past president of the American Public Health Association. He published an article about the possible risks posed by fracking fluids on the website of the Environmental Health Policy Institute, an arm of the group Physicians for Social Responsibility.

"I'm sure it will get into the groundwater and streams and creeks," Tsou said of photos depicting oil plumes and inundated wastewater ponds. "In other areas, cattle that drank the fracking fluid actually died an hour after drinking it. There are potential carcinogens that can lead to leukemia, brain cancer and other endocrine disruptors that can affect premature births. So it is not good to drink fracked wastewater."

...

An article written by Dr. Tsou on the Environmental Health Policy Institute begins:

"In 2008, Cathy Behr, a Colorado emergency room nurse at Durango Mercy Regional Medical Center was working the day shift when a gas driller worker, Clinton Marshall, arrived complaining of nausea and headaches. Marshall had spilled “fracturing fluid” on his clothes and boots and the smell apparently was overpowering and sufficiently strong that they evacuated the emergency room. Cathy Behr, without protection, had meanwhile spent just ten minutes tending to Mr. Marshall.

A few days after this ER visit, Behr appeared jaundiced and began vomiting fluid and having difficulty breathing. Behr's husband took her back to the emergency room where she was diagnosed with multiple organ failure, including liver failure, respiratory distress and erratic blood counts. She was admitted to the ICU with the presumptive diagnosis of poisoning from an unknown chemical.

The chemical was and is still considered to be a proprietary formula by the producer, Halliburton, a gas industry leader. It was later revealed to be a product with the trade name, Zetaflow. Halliburton noted that Zetaflow increases gas production by 30% and threatened that it would pull its secret sauce out of Colorado if it was forced to reveal what was in it.

You have to wonder why any environmental agency would allow a toxic chemical formula like Zetaflow to be injected into the ground, knowing that backflow and impoundment lagoons of fracking fluid result in chemicals wafting through the air, potentially exposing anyone who comes near. And you would not want to take a risk that this could leak into your ground water, permanently contaminating a water source for future generations.

Unfortunately, we not only allow such a risk, but we exempt such chemicals from the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Clean Air Act and other environmental laws. By handcuffing the EPA legal apparatus from regulating the gas drilling industry, we have given that industry the exclusive right to extract gas using whatever proprietary chemicals they deem appropriate.

Touted by political leaders, including President Obama in the State of the Union address, gas drilling has been promoted as creating an energy independent future for America. But given the environmental realities, many in the affected gas drilling areas are having buyer's remorse. Mark Smith, Chairman of Bradford County (PA) Commissioners, in one of the most heavily drilled counties in the state, wrote to the Governor in April 2011 that “the economic benefit of this development is unquestionable. However, it is also unquestionable that when left unattended, the negatives outweigh the positives quickly and heavily.