Stop the Hogs!

Toxic Stew: Chemicals in Waste Included Carcinogens And Neurotoxins

[ http://www.ewg.org/research/toxic-stew/full-report ]


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We’re finding out what’s in fracking wastewater, and it ain’t pretty

[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/thanks- ... aign=daily ]

By Ben Adler on 11 Mar 2015

On so many issues, California is the green leader, showing other states how it should be done better. But better is not necessarily the same thing as flawless. Right now, California is doing a better job of regulating fracking than any other state that allows it — but, of course, many local activists would rather the state just banned it, as New York has. [ http://grist.org/climate-energy/cuomo-b ... n-one-day/ ]

The federal government doesn’t require fracking companies to disclose the chemicals they use in their operations, and it has failed to produce data on the safety of fracking. Five years after the U.S. EPA announced plans to study fracking’s effect on drinking water, industry resistance has thwarted the effort. [ http://insideclimatenews.org/news/02032 ... ake-energy ] It’s up to states to require fracking operations to disclose what chemicals they are using and to find out if those chemicals are getting into the public water supply when frackers inject their wastewater underground. Most state governments, beholden to fossil fuel interests, aren’t doing this.

In 2013, California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed a law requiring disclosure of chemicals used in fracking and setting up monitoring for air and water quality near unconventional drilling sites. No other state has adopted as comprehensive a system for finding out what’s actually in fracking wastewater. California environmental activists worry, though, that the law doesn’t go far enough in protecting against the adverse impacts of fracking, from polluting neighbors’ water and air to triggering increased seismic activity. [ http://www.cafrackfacts.org/policy/cali ... gulations/ ]

Still, information is better than nothing. On Tuesday, the Environmental Working Group released a report reviewing California’s implementation of the fracking disclosure law and what it has found. [ http://www.ewg.org/research/toxic-stew/full-report ] The group points out, “Because California is the only state to require comprehensive chemical testing of drilling wastes and public disclosure of the results, the findings also provide a unique window into what chemicals likely contaminate fracking wastewater nationwide.”

The good news is that California’s aquifers used for drinking water have not been contaminated by fracking wastewater — at least not that we know of yet. But the risk remains. Just last week, the state stopped some drilling because it was threatening drinking water sources. [ http://www.latimes.com/local/california ... story.html ] And yesterday, California officials admitted to an angry state Senate panel that they had not been effectively protecting water sources from fracking pollution. As the L.A. Times reports, “for years [state regulators] inadvertently allowed oil companies to inject wastewater — from fracking and other oil production operations — into hundreds of disposal wells in protected aquifers, a violation of federal law.” [ http://www.latimes.com/local/california ... story.html ]

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[ http://grist.org/climate-energy/thanks- ... aign=daily ]

LISTEN: The Mother of Endocrine Disruption Science

[ http://loe.org/shows/segments.html?prog ... egmentID=3 ]

Air Date: Week of April 17, 2015 ( stream/download this segment as an MP3 file )

Theo Colborn may have waited until her 50s to get her PhD, but she still became a trailblazer in the field of environmental health. Theo died last December, and in this season of Earth Day fellow scientist and collaborator Laura Vandenberg and host Steve Curwood remember Theo's life and discuss her contributions to scientific knowledge.

EXCERPT:

CURWOOD: As a practical matter, what has Theo Colborn's work meant in terms of various chemicals that we might regulate today?

VANDENBERG: Well, one of the things that Theo helped others in the field to do was to identify just how many chemicals might have endocrine disrupting properties. She helped complied a list of either known endocrine disrupters or possible endocrine disrupters, and the list has more than 1,000 chemicals on it. Theo stayed very active in understanding the latest science about a lot of different chemicals, including BPA, for example. Another thing that is worth pointing out is just in the last few years Theo was one of the scientists that was sounding the alarm about chemicals that are used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. And she was pointing out just how many chemicals were used for fracking and how little we knew about them. And Theo was very concerned that these chemicals could also have endocrine disrupting properties in addition to being just toxic.

CURWOOD: When Theo Colborn died in December 2014 she was some 87 years old. So you're telling in her 80s she was working on this?

VANDENBERG: I'm telling you that I think two weeks before she passed, we were on the phone still talking about science. So this was a woman who cared very much about what she was doing, the scientists she was working with, and trying to save the world. I mean, this is a woman who was committed to saving the world.

CURWOOD: So Theo Colborn's ideas have brought you and this part of the scientific community to a certain point. What's next? What's over the horizon? If Theo were today, what direction would she be pointing towards as the need for more research and understanding?

VANDENBERG: I think one of the things that is really on the horizon, and once again, Theo saw it before a lot of us did, was the need to understand how these chemicals act in a mixture. For the most part in the lab, we study one chemical at a time. I treat animals with chemical X and I compare them to animals that weren't exposed. Well, you and I are not exposed to chemical X, we're exposed to chemical A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and we really need to develop the right methods to look at chemical mixtures. Theo's work on chemicals found in fracking is really a question of mixtures, all of these chemicals used together in a slurry. What are they doing?

CURWOOD: How do you think history is going to look back at Theo Colborn's work in, say, another 20 years or more?

VANDENBERG: I think people in my generation of science will look to Theo with awe. Knowing her when she was alive, what she could accomplish, was incredible. But I think the broader lessons that go beyond science to what Theo's legacy will be will also be huge. This is a woman who gave a good part of her life to trying and improving the life of humans, the health of humans, and wildlife. She cared very much for the environment and for how we could protect ourselves from chemicals that we didn't realize when they were first produced could cause such harm. I think that her legacy will only grow from here.

CURWOOD: Laura Vandenberg is Assistant Professor of Environmental Health Science at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Thank you so much for joining us for this Earth Day look back at the life of Theo Colborn.

VANDENBERG: Thank you so much, and thank you for honoring her.

RELATED:

Theo Colborn’s Endocrine Disruptor Exchange
[ http://endocrinedisruption.org/ ]

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WATCH: World-Renowned Scientist Dr. Theo Colborn on the Health Effects of Water Contamination from Fracking

[ http://www.democracynow.org/2010/4/14/w ... eo_colborn ]

April 14, 2010

EXCERPT:

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: That was Weston Wilson, an environmental engineer in the EPA’s Denver office, speaking in 2004. Dr. Theo Colborn, your thoughts on what he was saying on this issue of disclosure?

DR. THEO COLBORN:

Well, exactly. It’s very interesting. We’ve been trying to get information on the chemicals that are used to fracture —- well, actually, drilling and fracturing. Drilling has its problems, as well. We must not overlook that. And over the years, with the help of government datas and then also information that we’ve basically collected because of accidents and spills, we’ve been able to put together a database in which we have 944 products listed now that are being used in the states where natural gas activity is taking place.

Now, out of those 944 chemicals, we know between 95 and 100 percent of about 14 percent of the chemicals that are being used. We know what they are in those products. But we also have 43 percent of the products that are being used, we know absolutely nothing. We have no idea what’s in those forty-two-gallon drums or the 350— or 360-gallon totes. So we’re dealing with —- the information that we’re working with is only based on a very small percentage of the products that are being used. And then -—

AMY GOODMAN: So, let’s talk about the health — go ahead.

DR. THEO COLBORN:

But the problem here is, what Wes is talking about is, 70 percent — 30 to 70 percent of that water that’s injected underground can possibly come back up to the surface. No one knows exactly how much stays underground and how much is going to be coming back up to the surface. So you worry about the long-term effect of that material that’s staying underground, that could appear later coming up in rivers and streams, at people’s well sites, that sort of thing, because we don’t understand the geology underground. But then all that — the rest of that has to come back up. And what people don’t realize is that gas doesn’t come up out of the ground dry, either; it comes up wet. So we have the water we’re taking off of the gas that is not clean, and we have the water that’s coming back up from fracturing.

AMY GOODMAN: We don’t have much time, but we want to talk about the health effects. You are the president of the Endocrine Disruption Exchange.

DR. THEO COLBORN: That’s right.

AMY GOODMAN: Explain what endocrine disruption is and how that relates to these chemicals that you are beginning to identify.

DR. THEO COLBORN:

Well, it’s amazing, Amy. We were really stunned when we began breaking out the chemicals by their major health effects, and we found that 43 percent of the chemicals in Colorado, in those that are used there, are endocrine disruptors. Now, and in our national survey, it’s 37 percent.

But what endocrine disruption does, basically, these are the chemicals that we now understand better — by the way, that are made from natural gas, believe it or not — the plastics that — and pesticides and other industrial chemicals. These are the chemicals that can get into the pregnant woman and enter the womb, while her baby is developing in her womb, and alter how those children are born. And this is our big concern today, because we’re facing major pandemics of endocrine-driven disorders — simple things like ADHD, autism, diabetes, obesity, early testicular cancer, endometriosis. These are all endocrine-driven disorders that we’re very concerned about.

And these products are being injected underground, for centuries, maybe, to stay before they surface, and also coming back up. So the big problem is — with natural gas, is dealing with the water when it comes back up.

SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: And the EPA now is conducting a national study looking at natural gas drilling. What do you think is the significance of the study, and is it funded well enough?

DR. THEO COLBORN:

Well, I’m concerned about the funding, actually, and the time limit on it, too. It’s been given to the Office of Research and Development. Dr. Paul Anastas is now running that division of EPA, which was a great appointment by Obama recently, and I have a lot of faith in him. But there is — you know, it’s easy to go into a laboratory and set up some test tubes and run an experiment. But you’re working with undefined geology that shifts. Every single place you go, the geology is different, the hydrology is different. And for them to be able to get out there, and in two years, with only $2 million, try to resolve this problem, I don’t think they can do it.

And I did sit in on their day-and-a-half meeting that they had in Washington about the plans they’re thinking about and how they’re going to move forward to do this study. And I’m afraid they’re going to get into what is called the stakeholder process. They’re going to bring in people who know nothing about it, representing all the stakeholders, just like they did with the endocrine disruption panel that they put together in 1996.

AMY GOODMAN: We have five seconds.

DR. THEO COLBORN:

Five seconds, OK. But when you give it to the stakeholders, and you don’t give it to the scientists, you’re — we’ve got to separate the research that we’re doing behind all of this work that’s going on from those — the corporate-controlled decision makers.

AMY GOODMAN:
And, of course, we’re going to continue to follow this, because, well, under the guise of energy independence, this whole issue of natural gas drilling is really coming to the fore in this country. Dr. Theo Colborn, thank you so much for being with us.

Researchers warn that benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene may disrupt people’s hormone systems at levels deemed “safe” by feds

[ http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ ... e-solvents ]

April 15, 2015 By Brian Bienkowski Environmental Health News

Four chemicals present both inside and outside homes might disrupt our endocrine systems at levels considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to an analysis released today. [ http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es505316f ]

The chemicals – benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene – are ubiquitous: in the air outside and in many products inside homes and businesses. They have been linked to reproductive, respiratory and heart problems, as well as smaller babies. Now researchers from The Endocrine Disruption Exchange (TEDX) and the University of Colorado, Boulder, say that such health impacts may be due to the chemicals’ ability to interfere with people’s hormones at low exposure levels.

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Cathy Milbourn, a spokesperson for the EPA, said in an emailed response that the agency will "review the study and incorporate the findings into our work as appropriate."

The "EPA is screening thousands of chemicals for potential risk of endocrine disruption," she said. "As potential risk of endocrine disruption is identified, these chemicals are assessed further."

The four chemicals are retrieved from the wellheads during crude oil and natural gas extraction and, after refining, are used as gasoline additives and in a wide variety of consumer products such as adhesives, detergents, degreasers, dyes, pesticides, polishes and solvents.

Ethylbenzene is one of the top ten chemicals used in children’s products such as toys and playground equipment, according to a 2013 EPA report. Toluene is in the top ten chemicals used in consumer products such as fuels and paints, the report found.

All four get into indoor and outdoor air via fossil fuel burning, vehicle emissions and by volatizing from products. Bolden said studies that measure the air in and around homes and businesses find the chemicals 90 to 95 percent of the time.

Katie Brown, spokeswoman for Energy in Depth, a program of the Independent Petroleum Association of America, said in an email that the study suggests “products deemed safe by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission are more dangerous than oil and gas development.

Benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene are added to gasoline and emitted to the air during combustion.

“Contrary to their intentions, what this report actually shows is that people should be no more afraid of oil and gas development than products in their home,” she said.

MORE:

[ http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ ... e-solvents ]