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Causes and effects of fracking
Effects of fracking essay
Effects of fracking essay
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An individual’s environment plays a pivotal role in their overall health. The environment can affect a range of physical and mental processes, and is considered a defining factor of well-being. As a result, specific geographic areas are instrumental in shaping an individual’s health profile. This is clearly seen in the disparity between those living in areas exposed to toxic substances, versus individuals living in clean environments. Individuals in unpolluted environments experience the advantage of a body system free from the barrage of chemical assault. Unfortunately, people who live near toxic wastes or byproducts of industry, have a body that is in constant defense of attack. This natural defense mechanism can prove draining to the human body and endocrine disruption can result. A current example that highlights this topic involves the use of hydraulic fracking in several areas of the U.S. Previous epidemiologic research have indicated problems with endocrine disruption of exposed individuals living in geographic proximity to fracking. This is a serious health concern for these people, and it can ultimately put them at a health disadvantage due to their environment. A working knowledge of hydraulic fracking is imperative towards understanding the mechanism behind endocrine disruption in the exposed populations. Hydraulic fracking or hydrofracking is a highly controversial and charged topic. It has a lengthy list of supporters, as well as vehement opponents. Fracking has provided economic opportunity and security for many individuals, and at the same time cost in terms of environmental impact. Although the flurry around this topic seems fairly new, the actual process is quite dated. Fracking has been around ... ... middle of paper ... ...Sattler, B. (2013). Fracking, the environment, and health.American Journal of Nursing, 113(6), 45-51. doi:1097/01.NAJ.0000431272.83277.f4 Osborn, S. G., Vengosh, A., Warner, N. R., & Jackson, R. B. (2011). Methane contamination of drinking water accompanying gas-well drilling and hydraulic fracturing. Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences, 108(20), 8172-8176. doi:10.1073/pnas.1109270108 Palliser, J. (2012). Fracking Fury. Science Scope, 35(7), 20-24. Peduzzi, P., & Harding, R. (2013). Gas fracking: Can we safely squeeze the rocks?Environmental Development, 6, 86-99. doi:10.1016/j.envdev.2012.12.001 Snyder, S. A., Westerhoff, P., Yoon, Y., & Sedlak, D. L. (2003). Pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and endocrine disruptors in water: Implications for the water industry.Environmental Engineering Science, 20(5), 449-469. doi:10.1089/109287503768335931
Significance: Right now, The United States of America languishes in an economic decline. Jobs are being lost. Drilling in the ANWR will create hundreds of thousands of jobs. Also, 80% of Alaska’s state revenues are oil. With the North Slope oil fields in decline, Alaskans could lose jobs. Drilling in the ANWR will create jobs for Alaskans. As Jennie Wodkowski, who has lived in Alaska for 34 years said, “Oil’s important. We don’t have anything else going on here.”
In the video “Fracking Hell: The Untold Story” by Link TV explains how natural gas has been a huge problem not only for the earth in general but for everyone and everything living in it. The video explains how North East of Pennsylvania is having difficulties to conserve a healthy environment and people. North East of Pennsylvania is the main sources to extract gas and send it throughout the United States for gasoline and so on. However, this action is wonderful for the cost of gas, but has a huge impact on the environment and the people living in Pennsylvania. A lot of people in this state are worried having health issues because everything is not usable is being thrown out to the rivers where they get their fresh water.
The efficiently burning shale gas reduces carbon emission from electricity production plants, reducing carbon footprints on the environment. However, the process of hydraulic fracturing uses millions of gallons of pressurized liquid, which contains toxic chemicals, and some of this water is left over undealt with. The air near fracking sites is often also polluted and unsafe for nearby community residents. Injecting millions of gallons of water laced with toxic chemicals into the rock thousands of feet deep can cause earthquakes, causing a safety hazards for all nearby areas. Hydraulic Fracturing makes rare natural gases easily attainable, boosting the economy and reducing carbon emissions.
Over the last thirty years the United States has been faced with the problem of dependence on foreign countries for oil and the tight control that these exercise on the energy policies and economics of America. Many of these instances include: the oil embargos of the 1970s, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in 2001. Since the 1970s, one solution offered to reduce our nation's dependence on foreign countries for oil has been opening up drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Proponents say that drilling in ANWR would make the United States more self-sufficient in the area of energy, while at the same time not doing excessive damage to the environment of the area. Opponents of drilling in ANWR cite the environmental problems of off-shore drilling and maintain that this land should be left alone and allowed to stand as an environmental wonder. Given that some environmental groups do not mind allowing technology to invade the environment when it profits them and given the threats of global terror and the ever-increasing dependence our nation has on foreign oil, I believe it is in the best interests of the United States to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling.
Kovats, Sari et al. “The Health Implications of Fracking.” Lancet 383.9919 (2014): 757– 8. Web.
Fracking can cause harm to people, animals, and nature. When they drill into the ground they are pumping chemicals to extract the gas and oil, and this contaminates the water sources around it. “An editorial on gas extraction from the Marcellus Shale in the Post-Star, a newspaper in Glens Falls, New York, contends, “New York state simply can’t take the risk. There are plenty of places to find fuel. It’s not so easy to find a new water supply for 17 million people.”” (Hydrofracking
Osborn, S. G., A. Vengosh, N. R. Warner, and R. B. Jackson. "Methane Contamination of Drinking Water Accompanying Gas-well Drilling and Hydraulic Fracturing." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108.20 (2011): 8172-176. Print.
Disinfection is applied in water as well as wastewater treatment as a finishing step so as to destroy pathogens but the cause of concern regarding the disinfection process is the formation of disinfection byproducts (DBPs). Natural organic matter (NOM) in water has been considered as the predominant DBP precursors. Disinfectants are powerful oxidants that oxidize the organic matter present in water forming DBPs. Chlorine, ozone, chlorine dioxide, and chloramines are the most common disinfectants used nowadays and each produces its own suite of chemical DBPs in finished drinking water (Richardson, 2003). DBPs so formed pose a threat to human health because of their potential to cause cancer and reproductive/developmental effects. Most developed nations have regulated concentration of DBPs so as to minimize exposure to potentially harmful DBPs while maintaining adequate disinfection and control of targeted
Chemical pollution into the environment can cause both genotypic and phenotypic changes in many organisms, including humans. More specifically, environmental pollutants like BPA can act as xenoestrogens (estrogen imitators), ultimately affecting hormonal activity and production in an organism. This alteration in activity and production can be termed as endocrine disruption. The endocrine system regulates a variety of processes responsible for growth and development, including gonadal formation and function, digestion, metabolism, sex differentiation, and embryonic development (reviewed by Flint et al., 2012). Chemicals that interfere with the function or structure of the endocrine system can be defined as endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) (US Environmental Protection Agency, 2007).
Before one can see the devastating effects of fracking, one must first understand how fracking works. As previously stated, the main intent of hydro-fracking is to access and harvest natural gas that lies below the surface of the Earth. Having formed over 400 million years ago by the collision of tectonic plates (Marsa 3), the Marcellus Shale plays host to a gold mine of natural gas, which is currently at the center of the fracking debate in the Northeastern region of the United States. Unfortunately, access...
There are over 650 fracking chemicals that can cause cancer. The EPA has approved all of these chemicals, but do not have health testing data to properly test the chemicals. Most of the time, the EPA does not ask for any tests in the first place. Because of this safety hazard, civilians living near fracking wells fear for their safety and health. Fracking can release chemicals into the air. Benzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, and n-hexane all can be released into the atmosphere. Long-term exposure to these chemicals can lead to cancer, birth defects, blood disorders, and neurological
During recent years, numerous newspaper and magazine articles have suggested that humans may be at risk because small amounts of well known environmental contaminants, such as dioxin, PCBs and DDT, can affect hormone levels. Hormones are produced by the endocrine system as regulators of biological function in target organs. Because hormones play a critical role in early development, toxicological effects on the endocrine system often have an impact on the reproductive system. The term endocrine disruptor is used to describe chemicals that can mimic hormones and may either enhance or counteract their effects. It has been suggested that these hormone changes can, in turn, lead to a variety of health problems including cancer, decreased fertility, and abnormalities in newborns.
Fracking has become a highly controversial and publicized topic due to rising concerns and growing analysis into the mutual benefits of hydraulic fracturing to retrieve natural gas and oil reserves. With concerns of water pollution, mismanagement of toxic waste and irreversible
Numerous reports have been given on the dangerous affects of hydraulic fracturing. One such affect that has been noticed is that drinking water wells near the fracturing sites have been contaminated. During the hydro-fracking process, injected fluids that help to break and keep open the rock bed where the natural gas is kept, have “been known to travel three thousand feet from the well (Goldman).” This fluid could have the potential to enter and contaminate any water well for homes around hydraulic fracturing sites. This incident is one of the major problems that people want to figure out and know about before they allow a fracturing site by them. It has been the most feared outcome of having a fracking site nearby, and it is highly appropriate. One site in Wyoming had this happen, “…in August, EPA reported that eleven of thirty-nine drinking-water wells near a Wyoming hydraulic fracturing operation were contaminated with chemicals used in the fracturing process (Hobson EPA).” In Pennsylvania, another such case occurred, “There have already been severe pollution cases in Pennsylvania, mo...
...i. "Environmental Pathways Of Potential Impacts To Human Health From Oil And Gas Development In Northeast British Columbia, Canada." Environmental Reviews 20.2 (2012): 122-134. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Apr. 2014.