Hydrofracking

Health Risks

It is irrefutable that the process of hydrofracking causes air, noise, light, and water pollution. The question is, how much risk are we willing to take to allow industrialization of our Fingerlakes that may financially benefit 2% of New Yorkers while putting 100% of us in danger of loosing our inherent right to clean air and water? Do we feel we can regulate these health risks to a level where they are considered “safe”? As a physician, I have zero tolerance for any level of carcinogen, toxin, or endocrine disrupter that is avoidable.

We know BNDP, a biocide used in fracking, can kill a fish in a level too low to measure. We know that endocrine disrupters at levels of 1 part per trillion can derail our hormone system - permanently and irreversibly. We know the benzene and toluene continuously vented into the air from condensate tanks cause leukemia and bladder cancer, and that truck diesel pollution increases asthma to three times a normal incidence, and that states such as Wyoming for the first time have failed to pass federal standards for air quality. We know families that are poisoned with arsenic, bromine, benzene and toluene from their water well contamination and aerosolization of frack waste in impoundment ponds near their home.

Again, the ultimate question is: what risk are we willing to accept for ourselves, but more importantly, for our children, and their children?

Irreversible contamination of groundwater will likely occur at some point- maybe immediately with surface chemical spills, maybe in 2 years as unregulated frack waste filled with arsenic and barium and radium 226 makes its way into the environment, maybe in 30 years when 77,000 wells are abandoned and their casings now rust and crack with seismic shifts and act as permanent conduits for methane and its incorporated heavy metals and radiation from the deep shale. Toxins were buried there 400 million years ago and were never meant to cohabitate with living creatures.

Please write to Governor Cuomo and tell him your thoughts, as this is likely the only chance we have to prevent industrialization of our southern tier.