It's True. Fracking Harms Us Physically.

Even though you may not be an environmentalist, did you know that fracking has conclusively been proved to be harmful to our health?

Newswise.com reports that many chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, can disrupt not only the human body’s reproductive hormones but also the glucocorticoid and thyroid hormone receptors, which are necessary to maintain good health, a new study finds.

The chemicals block hormone receptors.  Big deal, you say?  “The high levels of hormone disruption by endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) that we measured, have been associated with many poor health outcomes, such as infertility, cancer and birth defects," the Web site quotes presenting author, Christopher Kassotis, a PhD student at the University of Missouri, Columbia.

Hydraulic fracturing is the process of injecting numerous chemicals and millions of gallons of water deep underground under high pressure to fracture hard rock and release trapped natural gas and oil. Kassotis said spills of wastewater could contaminate surface and ground water.

In earlier research, this group found that water samples collected from sites with documented fracking spills in Garfield County, Colorado, had moderate to high levels of EDC activity that mimicked or blocked the effects of the female hormones (estrogens) and the male hormones (androgens) in human cells, according to newswise.com.

The new study analyzed whether high-use fracking chemicals changed other key hormone receptors besides the estrogen and androgen receptors. (Receptors are proteins in cells that the hormone binds to in order to perform its function.) Specifically, the researchers also looked at the receptor for a female reproductive hormone, progesterone, as well as those for glucocorticoid—a hormone important to the immune system, which also plays a role in reproduction and fertility—and for thyroid hormone. The latter hormone helps control metabolism, normal brain development and other functions needed for good health.

Guess what they found?  The process blocked 20 of 24 estrogen receptors.  Estrogen is necessary for pregnancy. 

“We don’t know what the adverse health consequences might be in humans and animals exposed to these chemicals,” Kassotis admits, “but infants and children would be most vulnerable because they are smaller, and infants lack the ability to break down these chemicals.”

I don't need to know much more to not want fracking anywhere near me. 





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