2016-01-07

biogas good but fracking for natural gas radioactive #health #cancer

1.6: news.pol/healthcare/cancer/
biogas good but fracking for natural gas radioactive:
summary:
. we can make biogas by fermenting crops;
but most methane today comes from
fracking for natural gas trapped in shale
which contaminates our water with radioactive particles.

greenmedinfo.com 2016:
. natural gas provides nearly 40% of usa's electricity;
thanks to the new technique of HVHHF
(high-volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing).
HVHHF injects water etc until shale starts fracturing
and then the injected water comes back up
-- known as flow back water,
with quantities in the range of 30% to 70% of
about 5.5 million gallons of water per well.
The flow back water includes mining waste such as
heavy metals, and radioactive compounds.
. the study "Malignant human cell transformation
of Marcellus Shale gas drilling flow back water"
found that fracking wastewater induced
malignant changes in human bronchial epithelial cells
consistent with the cancerous phenotype.
The same fracking water was injected into mice,
with 5 of the 6 developing tumors within 3 to 6 months.
. the primary "carcinogenic" elements in the test wastewater
were barium and strontium.
[Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 2015].

What’s NORMal for Fracking?
Estimating Total Radioactivity of Produced Fluids:
Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM)
found in liquid wastes from hydraulic fracturing
are an emerging environmental health concern.
The heavily drilled Marcellus Shale, for example,
contains isotopes of radium, polonium, and lead.
[Environ Health Perspect. 2015]

. Uranium in groundwater?
'Fracking' mobilizes uranium in marcellus shale.
[Geological Society of America 2010]

. if this fracking water is being treated and reused,
are they actually removing all radioactive waste?

. a little radioactivity may extend life
( we get 30 millirems from the ground,
26 from the sun, 10 from food, and 5 from water;
compare to 10 from one dental X-ray)
[toxicology professor Ed Calabrese];
but when does radiation increase the risk of cancer?

. even low-dose exposure to radioisotopes
has been proven to be several orders of magnitude
more dangerous to health than
current assessment standards presently specify.
This is because health risk evaluations are based on
gamma-radiation associated effects,
based mainly on outdated observations of
atomic bomb blast survivors from WWII,
long before the discovery of DNA
and low-dose radioisotope mediated DNA damage.
[greenmedinfo`European Comittee on Radiation Risk]

Depleted uranium (DU) has a low-specific activity
in comparison to natural uranium,
so it is not considered to be
a significant radiological hazard;
however, a 2002 study demonstrates that DU
can generate oxidative DNA damage and can also
catalyze reactions that induce hydroxyl radicals
in the absence of significant alpha particle decay
[Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry 2002].

find people in your area against fracking:
americans against fracking .org
(arizona 2015: a facebook group).

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