All across the country, even in very remote, sparsely populated areas, drilling and fracking is creating bad air and high ozone levels. Despite warnings from pediatricians about the harmful effects to our children’s health, fracking is expanding rapidly and any attempt to control air emissions is met with bluster from the GOP members of our oil soaked Congress. If childhood asthma doesn’t get your attention, maybe heart attacks for everyone will.
Several months ago, I blogged about an emerging concern for people who live in areas of drilling and fracking aka the Gas Patch.
Emerging concern: Are Gas Patch residents at greater risk of heart attack?
A new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association confirms that exposure to “air pollutants–in some cases for a single day–increases the chance” of heart attack.
In that post, I included anecdotal cases from a heavily drilled and fracked area in the Barnett Shale where the American Lung Association gave a grade of “F” to our air.
This new heart attack makes no distinction between the fit and unfit, high or perfect cholesterol levels. This heart attack is caused from breathing in bad air. And the worst air in North Texas coincides with the highest levels of drilling activity.
Now we have another study, recently released, showing how living in bad air affects the heart. The Marcellus Effect has the scoop on that study.
So, North Texans, how do you feel about our “Red Alert” bad air days lately? Anybody have a heart attack recently? You can send a thank you for our bad air to THIS GUY because he is the one who appoints how to grow a chicken in a box and climate change denying “scientists” to our top environmental offices.
We need FEDERAL oversight. States are not getting the job done!
UPDATE: Air from yesterday in the Barnett Shale.
More bad news about our air from Downwinders At Risk.
Our best hope to get the attention of our oil soaked Congress is to all assemble in DC on 7.28.12.
About Sharon Wilson
Sharon Wilson is considered a leading citizen expert on the impacts of shale oil and gas extraction. She is the go-to person whether it’s top EPA officials from D.C., national and international news networks, or residents facing the shock of eminent domain and the devastating environmental effects of natural gas development in their backyards.
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On Monday, June 25th my councilman hosted a Town Hall Meeting with our Fire Department about preparedness measures OUTDOORS IN TRIPLE DIGIT TEMPS DURING AN ORANGE AIR ALERT. Mr. Rivera reported during the Arlington, TX council meeting last night that a 55-year old man went into cardiac arrest that evening, but the firefighter rescusitated him. Curious how the story is told in such a way that honors the hero but fails to mention the crappy air quality which caused him to collapse in the first place.
Driving between Fort Worth and Dallas earlier today…both cities are covered in a haze. And there is a rig up on Interstate 30 (Tom Landry Freeway), too, just before Cook’s Lane(heading east on 30) ~ right in the midst of an older neighborhood. It’s all still so surreal to know how bad our air is and to see these rigs up and running. Are we so blind that we cannot see? And why didn’t Councilman Rivera cancel this meeting when it was clearly too dangerous to be outdoors? (That’s a good example of the so blind that we cannot see part, too.)
Get Bad Air Alerts directly – dont depend on the media!
App for your phone:
http://www.lung.org/healthy-air/outdoor/state-of-the-air/app.html
for your PC:
http://airnow.gov/?action=airnow.local_city&zipcode=75233&submit=Go
Yesterdays air – lots of red:
http://www.airnow.gov/index.cfm?action=airnow.local_city&cityid=234&mapdate=20120626
Wow. Yesterday we reached the high end of red and almost into purple alert.
We are slowly killing ourselves every day. It appears that the whores in the gas industry like Range Resources are going to be the culprits. With them contaminating our air and water, we have no chance.
Dallas/Fort Worth is not a liveable place. My family drove out to Fort Worth today with the windows rolled down as our vehicle has no a/c. I cannot remember EVER seeing the air looking this filthy or smelling this horrible. In one area of town it had a strong chemical odor. Then, to make our day even brighter, we saw an incinerator flare at a drill site on I-20 between Hulen & McCart. Living in a toilet might be cleaner than living in Dallas/Fort Worth.