US federal and state governments must ban polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in fracking for oil and gas because of their health risks until investigations are completed, Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) said on Thursday
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2021) US Federal and state governments must ban polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) used in fracking for oil and gas because of their health risks until investigations are completed, Dr. Helen Caldicott, founder of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) said on Thursday.
"Until testing and investigation are complete, EPA and states should not allow PFAS or chemicals that could break down into PFAS to be manufactured, imported, or used for oil and gas drilling or fracking," Caldicott said in an interview.
Caldicott, an Australian physician, has been one of the world's leading anti-nuclear activists for more than 40 years. She is the author of many books including "The New Nuclear Danger: George W. Bush's Military-Industrial Complex" and is a global expert on nuclear dangers to human health. The Smithsonian Institution has named her one of the most influential women of the 20th century.
Caldicott was commenting on a new PSR report released on Monday. The report warned that chemicals used in US fracking operations by companies including Chevron and ExxonMobil to extract oil and natural gas contain and can degrade into so-called forever chemicals that have been linked to cancer and birth defects.
"This report by Dusty Horwitt from PSR is one of the most comprehensive studies that I have seen about these so-called forever chemicals. The concerns that the study raises from a medical perspective are real indeed," Caldicott said.
The report documents that much of the relevant data concerning the public has been hidden both by the manufacturers and government agencies, she noted.
"As early as the 1960s and 1970s, researchers inside Dupont and 3M became aware that PFAS were associated with health problems including cancers and birth defects, had accumulated inside virtually every human being, and persisted in the environment," Caldicott observed.
A team of epidemiologists completed a study of the blood of 70,000 West Virginians and found that there was a probable link between such chemicals and kidney cancer, testicular cancer, thyroid, high cholesterol and inflammation and ulcers in the large intestine or colon, Caldicott said).
"Mounting evidence of PFAS's risks has led ten states to develop guidelines for concentrations in drinking water of PFOA and other types of PFAS. One of these states is Michigan, which acted because the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had not enacted federal drinking water standards for PFAS," she said.
Michigan's maximum allowable level of PFAS is no more than eight parts per trillion for PFOA (Perfluorooctanoic acid), a manufactured perfluorochemical and a byproduct in producing fluoropolymers, Caldicott pointed out.
"These standards indicate that one measuring cup of PFOA could contaminate almost 8 billion gallons of water, six times the 1.3 billion gallons of water used each day by New York City," she said.
The Centers for Disease Control and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry warned in June 2020 that many US communities are also concerned about how PFAS exposure may affect their risk of COVID-19 infection as exposure to high levels of PFAS may impact the immune system, Caldicott recalled.
"There is evidence from human and animal studies that PFAS exposure may reduce antibody responses to vaccines, and may reduce infectious disease resistance. Because COVID-19 is a new public health concern, there is still much we don't know," she said.
In 2020, Pennsylvania's Attorney General issued a report based on a criminal grand jury investigation of oil and gas drilling pollution in the state and found that many people living close to fracking well pads began to become chronically, and inexplicably, sick, Caldicott stated.
"Pets died; farm animals that lived outside started miscarrying, or giving birth to deformed offspring. But the worst according to PSR was the children were most susceptible to the effects," she said.
However, the major oil and gas companies involved would not even identify the chemicals they were using, saying the compounds were "trade secrets" and "proprietary information" and this absence of information created roadblocks to effective medical treatment, Caldicott said.
"EPA and/or states should evaluate through quantitative analysis whether PFAS and/or PFAS breakdown products associated with oil and gas operations have the capacity to harm human health," Caldictot advised.
The EPA and/or states should also determine where PFAS and chemicals that may be PFAS have been used in oil and gas operations and where related wastes have been deposited. They should test nearby water, soil, flora, and fauna for PFAS, she recommended.
