The whole fracking truth.
Fracking workers are exposed to airborne benzene on the job when they open hatches of tanks that contain oil, waste water and chemicals used in high-volume hydraulic fracking. Benzene levels at the wells, when tested, "reached concentrations that pose health risks for workers".
Benzene interferes with normal cell functions. It stops bone marrow from producing enough red blood cells and subsequent anemia. Benzene is a colorless gas that causes cancer, nervous system damage, kidney and liver damage. Benzene causes a loss of white blood cells.
Workers not only have high volume exposures to benzene and other chemicals by breathing in fumes for two to five minutes up to four times per hour, but if the tanks are deep then they have to use hand-cranked gauging tapes to take measurements. This all adds up to serious toxic exposures of volatile organic compounds.
Workers are also exposed to crystalline silica from sand at fracking sites. Silica exposure can lead to a deadly lung disease called silicosis, lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses. Tougher standards to protect workers is being fought by several industries.
Occupational Safety and Health Administration safety levels are higher because of "input from industry". The industry does not care about long-term worker safety; they only care about profits.
The oil and gas industry likes to say that they have high worker safety records when in fact their "fatality rate of 27.5 per 100,000 workers is more than seven times higher than the rate for all US workers". (NIOSH)
In the Williston Basin in North Dakota and Montana four workers died since 2010 from acute chemical exposures during flowback. We do not need more studies to study the study.
I had a local benzene case of a patient with higher than normal levels because of contaminated groundwater and soil where he lived. Previously, it was an old army base used during WWII. He presented with progressive Parkinson's.
