Article Claims That Fracking is Responsible For a Serious and Growing Health Crisis

From Salon:
More than 70 years ago, a chemical attack was launched against Washington State and Nevada. It poisoned people, animals, everything that grew, breathed air, and drank water. The Marshall Islands were also struck. This formerly pristine Pacific atoll was branded “the most contaminated place in the world.” As their cancers developed, the victims of atomic testing and nuclear weapons development got a name: downwinders. What marked their tragedy was the darkness in which they were kept about what was being done to them. Proof of harm fell to them, not to the U.S. government agencies responsible.
Now, a new generation of downwinders is getting sick as an emerging industry pushes the next wonder technology — in this case, high-volume hydraulic fracturing. Whether they live in Texas, Colorado, or Pennsylvania, their symptoms are the same: rashes, nosebleeds, severe headaches, difficulty breathing, joint pain, intestinal illnesses, memory loss, and more. “In my opinion,” says Yuri Gorby of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, “what we see unfolding is a serious health crisis, one that is just beginning.”
The process of “fracking” starts by drilling a mile or more vertically, then outward laterally into 500-million-year-old shale formations, the remains of oceans that once flowed over parts of North America. Millions of gallons of chemical and sand-laced water are then propelled into the ground at high pressures, fracturing the shale and forcing the methane it contains out. With the release of that gas come thousands of gallons of contaminated water. This “flowback” fluid contains the original fracking chemicals, plus heavy metals and radioactive material that also lay safely buried in the shale.
Read the entire article, which is full of anecdotal evidence of health problems and environmental disasters caused by fracking, by clicking here.  It is similar to many such articles that have been published about fracking.  It is full of quotes from people with frightening claims about fracking, while not containing any tangible scientific evidence that oil and gas drilling is definitely what caused the problems - despite the fact that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has been called in for many of the cases.  The bottom line, as far as I can tell, is that either the stories these people tell about all of the problems that popped up after fracking took place near them are not true or the Pennsylvania DEP is the most corrupt, despicable and worthless government agency I've ever heard of.

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