Shale
Gas Industry Puts Workers at Risk in Rush to Frack
(Philadelphia)
Labor leaders and health professionals, along with a broad coalition of citizen
groups committed to halting shale gas development, assert that risks to workers
in the shale gas industry, "from stem to stern," are being overlooked
in the rush to frack. This is the first in a series of Bulletins in
advance of the Shale Gas
Outrage demonstration planned for Philadelphia, 12 - 2 pm on September
20th, 2012 (press conference 10 AM), outside the Convention Center where the
Marcellus Shale industry conference will be underway.
Five critical issues are:
Ø Silicosis caused by exposure to
crystalline silica sand, a"proppant" used in fracking, which is
inhaled by workers during mining, transportation and transfer
Ø Hydrogen sulfide, a potentially
deadly gas which occurs in fracked gas processing operations. Deadly levels
have been measured but covered up, and an exemption bars federal oversight.
Ø Chemical exposures on the job
producing skin lesions, severe headaches, gastrointestinal pain, respiratory
distress and other symptoms, with inadequate treatment and reporting
Ø A culture of fear discourages
workers from asking for protective gear; workers are also actively directed to
participate in environmental cover-ups. Because most shale gas jobs are
transient, non-union jobs, workers don’t feel safe speaking up.
Ø Dangerously explosive methane puts
utility workers, residents and rescue responders at risk on the distribution
end. Pipeline explosions kill.
1.
Silicosis: The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH) and the Office of Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
recently released a Hazard Alert warning workers about silica presence and
exposure during fracking. According to the alert, "Hydraulic fracturing
sand contains up to 99% silica. Breathing silica can cause silicosis, […] a
lung disease where lung tissue around trapped silica particles reacts, causing
inflammation and scarring and reducing the lungs' ability to take in
oxygen." A photo shows workers surrounded by clouds of the extremely fine,
dangerous dust. (3)
2.
Hydrogen Sulfide is implicated in the death of Jose Lara, who was told to
clean waste water tanks without knowledge of their contents or protective gear.
His story, and the gas industry’s deadly cover up, was revealed by Channel 5 in
Grand Junction, Colorado last year. (4), (5)
"'If I would have known the damage those tanks would
do to me, I would never have cleaned them,' an emotional Lara said through a
Spanish translator in front of a camera and room full of attorneys.
Dying from pancreatic and liver cancer, Lara
described his job with Rain for Rent, a California-based company with a branch
in Rifle, Colorado.
His job was to power-wash waste water tanks for
natural gas drilling companies. For years, Lara said he was not supplied with a
respirator, protective gear, or any warning of what he could be exposed to.
‘The chemicals, the
smell was so bad,' Lara said. 'Once I got out, I couldn’t stop throwing
up. I couldn’t even talk.'
Lara said he had no idea what he was being exposed
to.
Lara passed away three months after recording his
deposition. OSHA would later cite and fine Rain for Rent with nine violations,
six of them serious, for exposing Lara to a cyanide-like gas called hydrogen
sulfide."
The
same report quotes Ryan Beaver, who worked with the same kinds of tanks and
repeatedly found hydrogen sulfide gas levels triple the lethal level and wasn’t
allowed to tell anyone. Once, he found levels so high they maxed out his
device. He resorted to cracking open his mask to warn nearby workers and
inhaled a near-lethal dose himself.
BREATHE
ACT: One of the demands made by Protecting Our Waters and allies is to pass
the BREATHE Act, to close a loophole in the Clean Air Act which allows hydrogen
sulfide gas in oil and gas operations to be unregulated (6).
Congressmen
Jared Polis (D-CO), Representatives Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), and Rush Holt
(D-NJ) have introduced H.R.1204, the Bringing Reductions to Energy's
Airborne Toxic Health Effects (BREATHE) Act, which would finally subject
hydrogen sulfide gas to monitoring and regulation.
3.
Chemical exposure on the job appears to be rampant in the shale gas
industry. The health impacts do not appear to be prevented, monitored,
reported, well understood or adequately treated. "The very first time I
spoke in public about fracking, in January 2010, a union organizer from Erie
demanded to know why his workers were getting skin lesions," said Iris
Marie Bloom, founder of Protecting Our Waters, which is organizing and hosting
Shale Gas Outrage 2012. "Now we have heard of skin lesions, headaches,
gastrointestinal pain and respiratory distress from workers and residents alike
in counties across Pennsylvania, but workers, and even doctors, are afraid to
speak out because this industry is so powerful."
Poune
Saberi, MD, MPH, said, "In Pennsylvania
workers have reported contact with chemicals without appropriate protective
equipment, inhalation of sand without masks, and repeated emergency
visits for heat stroke, heat exhaustion, yet many of the medical encounters go
unreported."
4.
Culture of fear. Workers in the shale gas extraction industry repeatedly
report that they are laughed at or threatened when they request protective
gear. One such whistleblower speaks out here, describing what he calls a
"culture of fear": (7).
In
2011, Scott Ely of Dimock, PA told the Times Tribune that he was directed by, a
Cabot Oil and Gas subsidiary to deceive environmental regulators in
Pennsylvania by sampling uncontaminated soil instead of soil that had been
contaminated by a Cabot diesel spill. He only reported the incident after he
stopped working for Cabot:
“Cabot
tried to hide, minimize or ignore at least five diesel spills or their impacts
between 2008 and 2009. After an 800-gallon diesel spill in June 2008, a
drilling supervisor instructed him to move a reference point hay bale away from
a spot where lab tests showed persistently contaminated soil after treatment.
“I said, ‘So you want them to test where there’s no hot
dirt?’” he recalled. “He said, ‘That’s the idea.’” (8)
5.
Methane kills. "It's a very, very dangerous fuel once it gets into
distribution," said Stewart Acuff, a longtime labor organizer for utility
workers. "Philadelphia lost a 19 year old worker with only six months on
the job just 18 months ago because of a natural gas explosion in the
distribution line. Every member of his crew had burns all over their bodies,
and a firefighter was killed as well. San Bruno lost eight people when an
entire block exploded." (13)
Acuff
concluded, "It's really ridiculous that we're given this free power --
wind and solar -- which is abundant, all we have to do is harness it. Instead,
we're blowing up our earth, endangering workers and putting our groundwater at
risk."
For further information Shale Gas Outrage Communications
Committee: Berks Gas Truth, Clean Air Council, Delaware Riverkeeper
Network, Food and Water Watch, Marcellus Outreach Butler, Protecting Our
Waters.
References: Science and News
1.
Michelle Bamberger, Robert E. Oswald “Impacts Of Gas Drilling On Human And
Animal Health” New Solutions, Vol. 22(1) 51-77, 2012 Scientific Solutions
2.
Lisa M. McKenzie, Roxana Z. Witter, Lee S. Newman, John L. Adgate “Human health
risk assessment of air emissions from development of unconventional natural gas
resources” Science of the Total Environment, 2012 Mar 21
3.
OSHA-NIOSH Hazard Alert for Worker Exposure to Silica During Hydraulic
Fracturing: Available at: http://www.osha.gov/dts/hazardalerts/hydraulic_frac_hazard_alert.html
4.
"Hydrogen Sulfide May Have Killed Gas Drilling Worker," http://dallasdrilling.wordpress.com/2011/08/15/hydrogen-sulfide-may-have-killed-gas-drilling-worker/
5.
"Deadly Gas Cover-up Revealed," http://www.krextv.com/news/around-the-region/NC5-INVESTIGATION-Deadly-Gas-Cover-Up-Revealed-126869973.html
6.
Fact Sheet on the BREATHE Act, created by National Stop the Frack Attack
mobilization http://www.stopthefrackattack.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/STFA-BREATHE_Fact-Sheet1.pdf
7.
Whistle-blowing truck driver speaks out (Arkansas), describes culture of fear: http://protectingourwaters.wordpress.com/2012/07/18/whistle-blowing-truck-driver-on-law-flouting-fracking-companies/
8. Gas
Company Worker Details Spills, Errors http://thetimes-tribune.com/news/gas-company-whistle-blower-details-spills-errors-1.1234817
9.
Colburn, T. et al., Natural Gas Operations from a Public Health Perspective.
Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International
Journal. Vol. 17, Iss. 5, 2011
10.
Toxicological Profiles are peer-reviewed summaries for more than 300 compounds,
published by ATSDR: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/toxprofiles/index.asp .
11.
Fourth National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals
http://www.cdc.gov/exposurereport/pdf/FourthReport.pdf
12.
Frank AL (2000). "Occupational and Environmental Medicine: Approach to the
patient with an occupational or environmental illness." Primary Care;
Clinics in Office Practice 27 (4).
13.
Acuff, Stewart, “Dying to Work.” Huffington Post, January 2011 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/stewart-acuff/dying-to-work_b_812520.html
