Livestock falling ill in fracking regions
In the midst of the domestic energy boom, livestock on farms near oil- and gas-drilling operations nationwide have been quietly falling sick and dying. While scientists have yet to isolate cause and effect, many suspect chemicals used in drilling and hydrofracking (or “fracking”) operations are poisoning animals through the air, water or soil.
Earlier this year, Michelle Bamberger, an Ithaca, N.Y., veterinarian, and Robert Oswald, a professor of molecular medicine at Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, published the first and only peer-reviewed report to suggest a link between fracking and illness in food animals.
The authors compiled 24 case studies of farmers in six shale-gas states whose livestock experienced neurological, reproductive and acute gastrointestinal problems after being exposed — either accidentally or incidentally — to fracking chemicals in the water or air. The article, published in “New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health,” describes how scores of animals died over the course of several years. Fracking industry proponents challenged the study, since the authors neither identified the farmers nor ran controlled experiments to determine how specific fracking compounds might affect livestock.
The death toll is insignificant when measured against the nation’s livestock population (some 97 million beef cattle go to market each year), but environmental advocates believe these animals constitute an early warning.
Exposed livestock “are making their way into the food system, and it’s very worrisome to us,” Bamberger said. “They live in areas that have tested positive for air, water and soil contamination. Some of these chemicals could appear in milk and meat products made from these animals.”
http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/29/15547283-livestock-falling-ill-in-fracking-regions?lite
= new reply since forum marked as read
How can that be? After all, fracking is so safe, i know because the tv commercials say so, and they can't put anything on the teevee if it ain't true....
In Pennsylvania, the oil and gas industry is already on a tear—drilling thousands of feet into ancient seabeds, then repeatedly fracturing (or “fracking”) these wells with millions of gallons of highly pressurized, chemically laced water, which shatters the surrounding shale and releases fossil fuels. New York, meanwhile, is on its own natural-resource tear, with hundreds of newly opened breweries, wineries, organic dairies and pastured livestock operations—all of them capitalizing on the metropolitan area’s hunger to localize its diet.
But there’s growing evidence that these two impulses, toward energy and food independence, may be at odds with each other.
Tonight’s guests have heard about residential drinking wells tainted by fracking fluids in Pennsylvania, Wyoming and Colorado. They’ve read about lingering rashes, nosebleeds and respiratory trauma in oil-patch communities, which are mostly rural, undeveloped, and lacking in political influence and economic prospects. The trout nibblers in the winery sympathize with the suffering of those communities. But their main concern tonight is a more insidious matter: the potential for drilling and fracking operations to contaminate our food. The early evidence from heavily fracked regions, especially from ranchers, is not reassuring.
Drilling rig visible from the Schilke ranch in North Dakota. (Photo: Jacki Schilke)
Jacki Schilke and her sixty cattle live in the top left corner of North Dakota, a windswept, golden-hued landscape in the heart of the Bakken Shale. Schilke’s neighbors love her black Angus beef, but she’s no longer sharing or eating it—not since fracking began on thirty-two oil and gas wells within three miles of her 160-acre ranch and five of her cows dropped dead. Schilke herself is in poor health. A handsome 53-year-old with a faded blond ponytail and direct blue eyes, she often feels lightheaded when she ventures outside. She limps and has chronic pain in her lungs, as well as rashes that have lingered for a year. Once, a visit to the barn ended with respiratory distress and a trip to the emergency room. Schilke also has back pain linked with overworked kidneys, and on some mornings she urinates a stream of blood.
MORE...
http://truth-out.org/news/item/13058-why-are-cows-tails-dropping-off
SD and MT the democratic pols (in name only) are fighting FOR the Keystone XL pipleline AND looking the other way regarding pollution and high crime rates in the "boom" ares. And then there's no infrastructure to support all the "man camps" that have swarmed the state line area. Soon the Missouri River will be tainted from way up near the source, good luck to all down river.
"mansplaining" comes to the fore in discussion topics such as those. I try to avoid them because... you can lead a mind to knowledge but you can't make it think. I think I'll add that to my signature line since I made it up.
Meanwhile take a deep breath and know that you don't have to take on the burden of trying to get the male portion of the population to get it every time one with a serious lack of perspective comes along and makes a point of proving it.
definitely add that to your sig line.
And you understand 'mansplaining'....that's unusual around here.
I remember watching 'The Groucho Marx Show' as a small kid....and the little birdie would fly down when the 'WORD' of the day/night was spoken. I thought it was much fun.
Talk with you tomorrow.
purified nutrients, grown in sterilized earth or are grown in a completely sterile environment, like a petri dish .
The most wonderful, healthful organic food can be ruined by one worker taking care of business in the woods then picking your produce without washing hands or some radioactive fallout from a nuclear power plant meltdown thousands of miles away or used fracking water making its way into wells, municipal water systems or aquifers.
All things are interrelated and are all dependent on the exact same things that keep all life on the planet healthy.
The most organic seeds in the world can become contaminated plants if exposed to toxins in the environment. We buy these things with the hopes that this hasn't happened but can we really be sure? Would any one even bother to tell us if it occurs?
Sad to think about it all and more than a little scary.
of a canary in a coal mine thing regarding the cattle. There used to be a wealth of wildlife there... far more important than cattle by a long shot. the point that cattle are showing signs of distress due to poisoning means that it's gone so far that even the "tended to" species are now at risk. It's getting pretty late in the game.
And then there's the shit that happens on the reservations that nobody hears about...
Loophole Lets Toxic Oil Water Flow Over Indian Land
http://www.npr.org/2012/11/15/164688735/loophole-lets-toxic-oil-water-flow-over-indian-land
for instance...
you're not going to hear anything but what they consider "good" news about their industry...
