Thread by @ssteingraber1

Here's an explainer thread on today's bombshell exposé from our partner @PSRenvironment on the secretive approval and use of highly toxic PFAS chemicals as ingredients in #fracking fluid.

Let's start with @HirokoTabuchi's story in NYT, which is fantastic

nytimes.com/2021/07/12/cli…

As @HirokoTabuchi notes, @EPA approved the use of these chemicals for fracking 10 years ago, over the grave concerns of its scientists. We are just finding out about it now bc fracking ingredients are trade secrets. The oil/gas industry enjoys exemptions from federal...

environmental laws that otherwise mandate disclosure of any inherently toxic chemicals entering the shared environment.

But my friend, crackerjack investigator @DustyHorwitt, ferreted out 1000s of pages of heavily redacted documents via FOIA requests filed in 2014 and...

...with the help of the FracFocus database was able to show that PFOAS have been used in at least 1,200 fracking wells in six states (AR, LA, NM, TX, WY) by 130 oil and gas companies including Exxon and Chevron.

It's an amazing piece of detective work. psr.org/blog/new-repor…

Fracking fluid is water and sand that is used to shatter underground shale formations and liberate bubbles or oil or gas trapped inside. To it is added a sequential cocktail of chemicals to reduce friction, suspend the sand, reduce corrosion, and kill deep-life organisms.

We don't know exactly what the function of PFAS are as an ingredient of fracking fluid, but in other applications, they are used to prevent stickiness, as in Teflon-coated pans.

The EPA scientists who objected to PFAS approval for fracking fluid had good reasons for their concerns. PFAS (per-fluoroalkyl substances) are linked to cancer, birth defects, pre-eclampsia, immune disorders at vanishingly small concentrations (parts per trillion).

Also PFAS are basically immortal. Their molecules never disintegrate in the environment or in our bodies, which is why they are called "forever chemicals." (Carbon-fluorine bonds are hard to make and impossible to break.) So, we just keep accumulating more of them over time.

PFAS also readily convert to the chemical super-villain PFOA (perfluoro-octanoic acid), aka C8, made famous in the 2019 legal thriller Dark Waters starring @MarkRuffalo
focusfeatures.com/dark-waters

Just one cup of PFOA could contaminate 8 billion gallons of drinking water at levels known to harm human health, which is as much water as New York City uses in a week.

PFAS in fracking fluid is a scary thing because there are so many potential pathways to human exposure. If they are in fracking fluid, they're also in wastewater, which is dumped in open pits where it can evaporate or is spread on roadways as a de-icer or injected underground...

...where PFAS can contaminate drinking water aquifers. PFAS can leak from storage tanks or during catastrophic storms when tanks are breached. They can be released to the air during venting and flaring events.

IOW, routes of exposure are both airborne and via water.
Removing PFAS from drinking water is very difficult; it requires carbon filtration but, even then, there is no good place to dump the contaminated filters because...PFAS can leach from landfills.

Did I mention that trace exposure to PFOA can mess with thyroid functioning, cause cancer of kidney and testicle, suppress antibody production after vaccines, and also prenatal exposure in girls interferes with breast development? Published studies show all these effects.

The PFOA health impacts expert is toxicologist Dr. Linda Birnbaum, former NIEHS chief, who spoke today at a zoom presser to launch the report:

psr.org/blog/physician…

The revelation that fracking fluid may contain PFAS means we now know about another public health threat to residents living near fracking sites and to workers and to first responders, like firefighters, who are called in when, say, a well or a pipeline blows up or ignites.

One unanswered question among many: can PFAS also enter the pipelines with the gas itself, the terminus of which could be your basement furnace or kitchen stove?

If you want the EPA to act on forever chemicals in fracking operations, you can join the call for a moratorium on PFAS use in oil and gas extraction. PSR sign-on letter:

secure.everyaction.com/47ruoSeDmkiz72…

And, of course, you now have a new reason to just call for a #BanOnFracking. Evergreen tweet.

Cupcakes and roses for lawyer, researcher, and former reporter @DustyHorwitt, who has pierced the veil of fracking secrecy and also...just rejoined Twitter! Let's all follow this guy.