Dear Governor, I write to you with urgent decree. As a consultant of the Agency for Toxic Substances for Disease Registry, our primary mission is to protect communities from harmful health effects related to exposure to natural and man-made hazardous substances. I wish to inform you of the toxic consequences that are an inherent risk associated with hydrofracking and provide an unbiased, scientific source to provide you with the correct information to make your decision. One of the major concerns of hydrofracking that jeopardizes our health concerns the nondisclosure of the chemicals that are used in fracking fluids. We know that water and cement is used, but companies are not required to disclose what chemicals are added to their “propriety …show more content…
In 2011 The United States House of representatives Committee on Energy and Commerce published a report identifying 29 known or possible human carcinogens found in fracking fluid (Rafferty, 2013, 457). The most troubling concern is the possible contamination of drinking water. In Germany Exxon released the chemicals used in one of their fracking blends to be reviewed. A study found that 1-3% of the fracking fluid is composed of added chemicals, many of which are toxic and carcinogenic. During the process of fracking naturally occurring chemicals in the shale rock can also mix into the fracking fluid, and many of these chemicals are also toxic (Gordalla, 2013, 884). The major concern from a toxicological perspective is New York’s drinking water. 90% of New York city’s drinking water comes from west of Hudson, NY. The Marcellus shale is underneath this water source. If any contamination from hydrofracking occurs to this water supplies millions of people will be without safe drinking water. Benzene has been found to be in many hydrofracking fluid blends and is toxic at one part per billion (Rush, 2010, 28). The need for the fracking fluid to be transported off site and to disposal or treatment sites increases the risk of toxins such as benzene being exposed to drinking water