BOMBSHELL: deep dive by investigative reporter @JustinNobel into radiation risks from #fracking.
Part of a years’ long research project by one of our finest reporters.
Beyond Fracking: Oil-and-Gas Industry’s Toxic Waste Is Radioactive rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
Part of a years’ long research project by one of our finest reporters.
Beyond Fracking: Oil-and-Gas Industry’s Toxic Waste Is Radioactive rollingstone.com/politics/polit…
I can’t stress enough how important these findings are. Sometimes journalism can go where science can’t. E.g. Justin tracked down a worker in Ohio who had quietly collected and stored samples of fracking waste from the various loads he had hauled over the years.
Earth’s bedrock contains a whole periodic chart of elements, including some radioactive ones. When you blow it up using water as the club (fracking) those elements end up in the briny wastewater that comes up to the surface and requires disposal. Science has documented this...
...but now journalism pulls back the veil of secrecy to reveal radiation dangers to fracking workers heretofore ignored.
Special message here for Ohio: the Marcellus Shale is particularly radioactive and much of that waste goes to Ohio for disposal. Literally a hot mess.
Special message here for Ohio: the Marcellus Shale is particularly radioactive and much of that waste goes to Ohio for disposal. Literally a hot mess.
“Expert testimony in lawsuits by Louisiana oil-and-gas workers settled in 2016 show that pipe cleaners, welders, roughnecks, roustabouts, derrickmen, and truck drivers hauling dirty pipes and sludge all were exposed to radioactivity and suffered a litany of lethal cancers.”
“In the 1970s, Exxon learned radioactivity was building up in pumps / compressors at most of its gas plants. ‘Almost all materials of interest and use to the petroleum industry contain measurable quantities of radionuclides,’ states a never-publicly released 1982 report by API.”
I am not summarizing the whole brilliant investigation here bc you must read and share it. Radiation dangers from fracking extend from wellpad to every pipeline, compressor station, gas plant, cracker plant, and piece of infrastructure.
Natural gas is an invisible climate killer that is mostly extracted from the bedrock via fracking. It brings with it an invisible human killer: radiation exposure.
So much praise to @JustinNobel for prying the lid off this lethal story. It’s on us to make sure it’s not ignored.
So much praise to @JustinNobel for prying the lid off this lethal story. It’s on us to make sure it’s not ignored.
And praise also to @RollingStone editors for their courage in publishing this groundbreaking investigation. You can imagine all the demons from fracking hell flying stright at them right now.
Three things to do immediately:
1) Read story and share it
2) Follow @JustinNobel
3) Use this hashtag: #oilandgasradioactivity
1) Read story and share it
2) Follow @JustinNobel
3) Use this hashtag: #oilandgasradioactivity
