How Does a Flood Turn a Baby Blue?

 

Houston Chronicle photo image by Charlie Niebergall

The Houston Chronicle today reported a surge in nitrates in the state of Iowa’s drinking water following a very soggy spring, during which the heavy rains washed nitrogenous fertilizers and manure into drinking water supplies.

One might not think to draw a connection between a baby’s skin color and the weather, but high exposures to nitrates in water supplies causes a condition called Methemaglobinemia, which, especially in infants, affects oxygenation of the central nervous system, and can result in the skin looking a cyanotic, grey-blue color.

Blue Baby Syndrome, as it is called, is an illness that can lead to death if exposures continue.

The Prescription Cocktail in Your Water Glass

Several years ago, I started learning about and becoming concerned over the announcement that the water supplies of cities nationwide had been tested, and that many had been found to have varying amounts of prescription pharmaceuticals in the water: Prozac, antibiotics, birth control hormones, steroids, to name a few. Philadelphia, it was found, had 56 drugs in its water.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-tap-water_N.htm

Now, it seems, GE’s refrigerator developers are rising to the challenge. They are announcing refrigerators which have special filters to get pharmaceuticals out of people’s ice cubes. The trouble is, they only filter out five of them….

http://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/articles/new-ge-refrigerator-filters-trace-pharmaceuticals-water

A Fine Idea!

One common type of post-hydraulic fracturing dispute between landowners and gas companies occurs over the landowners’ conviction that the “fracking” ruined the quality of their water, and, because baseline data documenting the quality of the water before fracking occurred was not obtained, the landowners are at a disadvantage to prove their point. Sometimes gas companies do pre-test the water, but the results are not made public.

Gov. Mead of Wyoming is considering making water quality testing prior to hydraulic fracturing mandatory, and this article suggests that there also be requirements that the data obtained be made public on an easily-accessed web site. A fine idea!

http://trib.com/opinion/editorial/wyoming-can-lead-by-example/article_c68f3b67-7d71-5053-8364-aafde6ae385b.html

 

Silicosis on the Rise as a Fracking Side Effect

Silicosis is a serious lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica dust (think “sand”), and is one of the dangerous health threats affecting not only fracking site workers, but school children and communities near fracking sites, as sand is part of the fracking fluid pumped deep underground to prop open cracks in the shale made to release the natural gas.

HAZARD ALERT – Worker Exposure to Silica during Hydraulic Fracturing
http://www.osha.gov/dts/hazardalerts/hydraulic_frac_hazard_alert.html

 

WATER=LIFE

Allowing water in such vast quantities to be polluted beyond redemption by fracking is profoundly lacking in foresight. We need to demand immediate changes.

WATER = LIFE
http://www.westernresourceadvocates.org/frackwater/