“White Lung” like Black Lung is a debilitating (permanent) condition

From the Message by Patricia Popple, Frac Sand Sentinel # 428, January 30, 2023

Doug Wood, who lives with his wife, Dawn, in Michigan, just south and west of Detroit, is besiged with a continually developing silica mine right next door to his home. Silica dust is carcinogenic and has known to be so for many years. It settles in the deep lung and in other body parts, unable to be released in anyway due to the small glasslike particulates that are a part of the geological formation.

While Michigan may have a standard set for respirable crystalline silica dust, it seems there is no enforcement by state protection agencies in residential areas. Who is responsible? Doug and his wife have worked endlessly it seems to get someone in the regulatory agencies and mining industry, to install air quality monitoring, and yet nothing has been achieved. Neighbors seem to be unconcerned about the presence of a mining operation that continues to spew dangerous dust into the air without concern for the residential areas that exist around the silica mine. There are other problems also associated with this operation including truck traffic and noise, but the dust produced is horrific and dangerous.

While it could take 20 years for silicosis to develop in the deep lung, it could take less. The glass like particulates don’t seem to be much different than asbestos which is also a known carcinogen.

Take a look at the video at the site and see for yourself the problems that the Wood family members are dealing with. They need help and support from the state and neighbors and Michigan’s protective agencies and organizations to spread this information and their concerns and more than that, take action.

Fractracker has played a role in the production of this video, and there are other videos in this series about the problems faced when regulatory agencies aren’t much concerned about the health, safety, and welfare of people and their offspring living near silica or other mines that bring the potential for grave health conditions to a neighborhood. Also, look for them on YouTube.

Please click on the video link here:
https://youtu.be/T6PSl9Cdhvw

I know that Wisconsinites are aware what the Wood Family is facing, but there are others of you in other locations who may be in similar situations. The industry must tighten its regulations, states and local governmental officials and groups much enforce. Residents and others must get involved by speaking out and by attending meetings of local and state agencies who can make a difference through rules, comprehensive plans, ordinances, zoning, and action.

>>> And by the way, register to VOTE in your communities at upcoming primary and general elections. It is critical that everyone get to the polls or participate in voting via absentee ballot. You can make a difference by researching candidates who are responsive to people facing environmental and health issues in your communties across the nation. Make a difference by exercising your right at your nearest voting location. VOTE!

>>> Welcome to the Frac Sand Sentinel, a newsletter highlighting resource links, news media accounts, blog posts, correspondence, observations and opinions gathered regarding local actions on, and impacts of, the developing frac sand mining and processing industries.

The Halliburton Exclusions have exempted Drilling & Fracking for far too long

​——→ Check out the schedule and events here​

Speakers from the following Groups: Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign, Beyond Plastics, Beyond Extreme Energy, Committee to Ban Fracking in Michigan, Communitopia, Concerned Citizens of Navarro County, Damascus Citizens for Sustainability(DCS), Earth Dog Films, Fracking the System, Earthworks, Environmental Health News, FracTracker Alliance, Keep It Wild, Lisa Johnson and Associates, OJI:SDA’ Sustainable Indigenous Futures, Ohio River Valley Institute, Park Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania, Property Rights and Pipeline Center, ReImagine Appalachia, Sierra Club, The Natural History Museum, Yale School of Public Health and Yale Cancer Center

Topics / Presentations: Precautionary approach to fighting oil & gas; Playing the long game: Overcoming defeat and setting new goals in the oil & gas fight; Telling the truth about plastic pollution;Pushing back against the Bitcoin Empire in Texas; “We Refuse to Die” – On our exhibition, movement building, and media campaign to stop the petrochemical expansion; Stopping gas exports to protect public health and avert the worst impacts of the climate crisis!; Shared Prosperity in the Ohio River Valley; Using maps to inspire action; Journalism on plastic, toxic chemicals, and oil & gas pollution; Victory against the Epiphany Allegheny corporation and the ongoing battle against the Northern Access Pipeline in NY; Building power across labor, environmental advocates, faith leaders, and racial justice leaders in Appalachia; The Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign; Colorado’s oil and gas wars – Upcoming documentary film; FLIR Cameras – Making the invisible visible; Skill building for grassroots organizers; Legal advocacy for fracking victims and learning industry tactics; Getting a statewide fracking ban on the ballot in Michigan; Protecting landowners’ rights against pipeline development; and Addressing the Health Impacts of Fracking

Full details and guest speaker profiles are underway and will be added soon!

At the conclusion of the summit you’re invited to participate in a National Strategy call to discuss what is next and needed for the anti-fracking movement to be successful. Please participate and share what you’re working on with others.

Please register and invite your colleagues at https://lu.ma/2022-network-summit

Sincerely, Ryan Clover, Halt the Harm Network

Air pollution increases risk of dementia

From an Article by Laura Donnelly, April 23, 2015

A study of more than 900 adults found that those living near major roads suffered cerebral shrinkage, ageing their brains by the equivalent of one year, and increasing their dementia risk. The new research suggests long term exposure to air-borne pollutants can cause damage to brain structures and impair thinking and memory in middle-aged and older adults.

Those living near main roads had smaller brains, and “covert brain infarcts”, a type of “silent” stroke, which results from a blockage in the blood vessels supplying the brain. Researchers looked at how far patients aged over 60 who did not have a stroke or dementia lived from major roads. They then used satellite images to assess prolonged exposure to air pollution.

Dr Elissa Wilker, a researcher in the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, said: Our findings suggest that air pollution is associated with insidious effects on structural brain ageing, even in dementia and stroke-free individuals.”

The evaluation included total cerebral brain volume, which is a marker of atrophy of the brain, hippocampal volume, which reflect changes in the area of the brain that controls memory; white matter hyperintensity volume, which can be used as a measure of pathology and ageing; and covert brain infarcts.

The study, published in the journal Stroke, found that small increases in air pollution – an increase of only two microgram per cubic meter of air, to levels commonly found in cities, was sufficient to increase the risks. Dr Wilker said the mechanisms were unclear, but that it might be that the body suffered inflammation as a result of the deposit of fine particles in the lungs.

Professor of Neurology Dr Sudha Seshadri at Boston University School of Medicine said: “On average participants who lived in more polluted areas had the brain volume of someone a year older than participants who lived in less polluted areas. “They also had a 46 per cent higher risk of silent strokes. This is concerning since we know that silent strokes increase the risk of overt strokes and of developing dementia, walking problems and depression.”

Last year researchers suggested that commuters could cut their air pollution intake in half simply by using the side streets in major cities rather than main roads. Dr Rossa Brugha, a paediatrician and pollution researcher at Queen Mary, University of London, said walkers can make small adjustments to their route which could have major benefits on their health. 

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Above study also reported here::

Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution May Pose Risk to Brain Structure, Cognitive Functions

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Group Against Smog & Pollution, Public Meeting, April 30, 2015

Making the Connection: Air Pollution and Heart Health

Air pollution can affect heart health and trigger heart attacks and strokes that cause disability and death. One in three Americans has heart or blood vessel disease and is at higher risk from air pollution. Not only does air pollution exacerbate existing heart problems, but it may also play a role in the development of heart disease in otherwise healthy people. On April 30, join GASP and leading medical professionals as they explore this connection further.

Keynote speaker Wayne Cascio, MD and Director of EPA’s Environmental Public Health Division, has spent more than 25 years as a cardiologist helping people take care of their hearts. Now he is bringing a broader view of public health to EPA by leading research on the links between exposures to air pollution and maintaining a healthy heart.

Program is set for April 30, 2015. Time: 5-8 p.m.  
Networking, food, and drinks start at 5 p.m.; program begins promptly at 6 p.m. at the Allegheny General Hospital Magovern Conference Center, 320 East North Avenue, Pittsburgh, PA 15212
 
This event is free and open to the public. Please register here. Continuing Medical Education Credits are available. This event is jointly provided by the Group Against Smog & Pollution and Allegheny General Hospital.

Extreme Levels of Benzene Floating Around

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, August 25, 2013

NEW MARTINSVILLE – Levels of carcinogenic benzene in the air 625 feet away from one natural gas drill site were so bad that a West Virginia University professor said he would recommend “respiratory protection.”

Although these extreme levels of benzene lasted for only about three hours at one particular site, Michael McCawley, chairman of the Department of Occupational & Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at WVU, said the readings show that air emissions from Marcellus and Utica shale drilling need more regulation.

A West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection study – which the state Legislature requested and which included McCawley’s work – does not recommend any change to existing state law, noting “no additional legislative rules establishing special requirements need to be promulgated at this time.” The report concludes there are no indications of a public health emergency or threat based on air quality monitoring data.

However, McCawley said this is only a small part of the picture because the DEP study primarily dealt with whether the Legislature should extend the current 625-foot setback requirement for wells to be located away from occupied dwellings.
“Not everything happens at the center of the well pad, the way the Legislature seems to believe,” McCawley said. “Distance is less important than monitoring.”

In multiple legal advertisements during the past few years, natural gas producers have confirmed the “potential to discharge” various amounts of chemical substances, listed below, into the air on an annual basis from the operations at the natural gas wells and compressor stations:

>>>>> benzene, carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, methane, carbon dioxide equivalent, xylenes, toluene, formaldehyde.

McCawley studied the air near seven wells throughout the state, including five in Wetzel County, one in Brooke County and one in Marion County. Each well was in a different stage of development at the time he monitored them from July through October 2012.

He said benzene was the primary constituent that he found at the sites, though he does not believe all of this came from the well itself. “It appears the diesel activity at the well sites could be contributing to the readings we are seeing at the sites,” McCawley said.

For those who live in the rural areas near these well sites, such as Wetzel County Action Group member Bill Hughes, the time for more regulation is now. “These things are totally unregulated, unmonitored and unaccounted for,” Hughes said of the air emissions from well pads. “The diesel fumes are continuous and almost unbearable. My neighbors do not live in the country to constantly breath in diesel fumes.”

In terms of the immediate hazards for those living in the vicinity of natural gas wells, McCawley said, “There is cause for concern.” However, he said the Legislature does not have to change any rules to protect public health because he believes the DEP already has all the authority it needs. The DEP study determines the agency already has the “regulatory framework” to reduce air emissions from drilling. McCawley would like to see this put into action.

“The DEP could require companies to monitor their own air emissions as a way to control this,” he said. “That way, they could at least know when there is a problem.”

McCawley also said he is working with the Wheeling-Ohio County Health Department to conduct a long-term study regarding how drilling is impacting Ohio County’s air quality. “You are not necessarily going to see benzene at well sites. But we need to know what is being emitted, how it is being emitted, and for how long it is being emitted,” he said.

Hughes agrees, noting his neighbors do not want their children or grandchildren to get sick from the fumes. “We will make no progress in minimizing the long-term regional air quality deterioration in our state until we formulate a process that requires all natural gas exploration and production companies to inventory and measure all emissions,” he added.