The 4 Big Dangers of Fracking

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/fracking/4-big-dangers-fracking



***SNIP

1. Exploding Trains

Another day, another oil train accident, it seems. On the night of January 7, a train carrying crude oil and propane derailed near Plaster Rock in New Brunswick, Canada. A day later the fire continued as locals evacuated, unsure if they were being exposed to toxic fumes.

***SNIP

2. Workers at Risk

Those who live along train routes aren't the only ones facing safety risks from the oil and gas industry. NPR reports that accidents among workers in the industry are on the rise—bigtime. From 2009 to 2012 the industry added 23 percent more workers but “the hiring spree has come with a terrible price: Last year, 138 workers were killed on the job — an increase of more than 100 percent since 2009,” wrote Andrew Schneider and Marilyn Geewax for NPR . “In fact, the fatality rate among oil and gas workers is now nearly eight times higher than the all-industry rate of 3.2 deaths for every 100,000 workers.”

***SNIP

3. The Accidents You Don’t Hear About

Trains bursting into flames usually (and rightfully) makes the national headlines—especially when fatalities occur. But smaller accidents happen daily that often fail to make it beyond local reporting, if that. Those who live in communities adjacent to the oilfields and gaslands keep their own tallies.

***SNIP

4. Not So Good for Your Health

Findings presented at a recent meeting of the American Economic Association by researchers from Princeton University, Columbia University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have made headlines. The researchers “looked at Pennsylvania birth records from 2004 to 2011 to assess the health of infants born within a 2.5-kilometer radius of natural-gas fracking sites,” reports Mark Whitehouse for Bloomberg.

[Champion Jack]

1. The exploding tank referenced in the picture above

Is just a few miles from me… West Virginia DEP are absolutely worthless pawns of the gasholes.
DEP = don't expect protection.