Implications of fracking fluid on human health

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madman

Super Moderator
Abstract

Exposure to hydraulic fracturing fluid in drinking water increases the risk of many adverse health outcomes. Unfortunately, most individuals and researchers are unaware of the health risks posed by a particular well due to the diversity of chemical ingredients used across sites. We constructed WellExplorer (WellExplorer), an interactive tool for researchers and community members to use for retrieving information regarding the hormonal, testosterone, and estrogen modulators located at each well. We found that wells in Alabama use a disproportionately high number of ingredients targeting estrogen pathways, while Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania use a disproportionately high number of ingredients targeting testosterone pathways. Researchers can utilize WellExplorer to study health outcomes related to exposure to fracturing chemicals in their population-based cohorts. Community members can use this resource to search their home or work locations (e.g. town or zip code) to determine proximity between where they live or work and specific hormonal exposures.






Introduction


Hydraulic fracturing is a technique used to release the oil or gas held within naturally occurring pockets of shale or other dense rock often contained deep within the earth (Figure 1) (1). While the first patents related to the hydraulic fracturing process date back to 1968 (2), a major increase in hydraulic fracturing, or ‘fracking’ as it is commonly called occurred starting in the early 2000s, with some reporting a 10-fold increase between 2000 and 2015 (3, 4). Following this explosion of growth in the hydraulic fracturing industry, initial reports began to suggest that earthquakes were correlated with fracking activity (5). These reports were later followed up by numerous studies pointing to increases in seismic activity that correlated with hydraulic fracturing fluid injections (6) that are related to the underlying fault lines that these injection wells are perturbing (7).




Implications of hydraulic fracturing fluid on human health

Important health implications exist for those living near hydraulic fracturing sites. Close proximity to hydraulic fracturing sites has been linked with increased hospital utilization (8), increased risk of preterm birth (9), and increases in congenital heart defects and possibly neural tube defects (10). These adverse health outcomes are likely due to the chemicals used in the fracking process. These chemical mixtures are known to affect processes involving development and reproduction (11). Therefore, knowing the specific chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing sites near a person’s home and whether they regulate various hormonal pathways, including testosterone and/or estrogen, is important for both researchers who may be studying health outcomes among these populations, but also for those living in the potentially affected communities who may be able to take action (e.g. water testing).




Overview of WellExplorer

The purpose of WellExplorer is 2-fold: (i) to integrate information on hormonal, estrogen, and testosterone pathways and the proteins that are targeted by chemicals used in the hydraulic fracturing fluid to enable both researchers and community members to readily access this information when studying health outcomes and (ii) to include information about well locations in an easy-to-use manner so that community members can search their own zip codes to locate hydraulic fracturing wells in close proximity to them (ranked by distance from entered zip code).
Therefore, WellExplorer (http://www.wellexplorer.org/) is useful to both researchers studying health outcomes related to proximity to hydraulic fracturing wells and also to community members deciding what chemicals they should test for in their private water wells.





In conclusion, we have developed WellExplorer (http:// www.wellexplorer.org/), which contains information on hydraulic fracturing wells and also detailed information on the ingredients used in the hydraulic fracturing fluid. This includes whether the ingredient is a toxin, a food additive, known to target a hormonal pathway, known to target an estrogen pathway, or known to target a testosterone pathway. We also include specific information on the gene targeted by the ingredient, if that information is available. Use of WellExplorer enables two ends: (i) to integrate information on hormonal, estrogen, and testosterone pathways and genes that hydraulic fracturing fluid ingredients target so that researchers and community members can readily access this information when studying health outcomes and (ii) to include information about well locations in an easy-to-use manner so that community members can search their own zip codes to locate hydraulic fracturing wells in close proximity to them (ranked by distance from entered zip code). WellExplorer is useful to both researchers studying health outcomes related to proximity to hydraulic fracturing wells and also to community members deciding what chemicals they should test for in their private water wells. Researchers using WellExplorer can also search for specific gene names that they may be interested in to locate wells that are using ingredients targeting those genes. This could be very important for future research questions investigating health outcomes following exposure to hydraulic fracturing fluids.
 

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madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2159).png

Figure 1. Schematic detailing the hydraulic fracturing process. The well is drilled vertically downward to a certain depth up to 5000 ft (reported as the well drill depth) and then horizontally radiating out by 1–2 miles (not reported by FracFocus). The fracking occurs in the horizontal space after perforating the casing and delivering proppant (sand or silica plus hydraulic fracturing fluid) to keep the fissures open releasing the oil or gas kept in the shale within the earth.
 

madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2160).png

Figure 2. Method for linking hydraulic fracturing ingredients (i.e. chemicals) with information on toxicity (ATSDR), gene and protein targets (T3DB), and food additives Everything Added to Food in USA (EAFUS). We linked the hydraulic fracturing ingredients to information on toxicity, gene, and protein targets for each chemical and whether or not the chemical was a food additive using their Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) numbers. We further linked the gene/proteins to estrogen, testosterone, or hormone pathways using KEGG pathways.
 

madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2161).png

Figure 3. Maps of the United States of America detailing hydraulic fracturing well locations (A), the proportion of wells with estrogen pathway targeting Ingredients (B), the proportion of wells with testosterone pathway-targeting Ingredients (C), and the proportion of wells with hormonal pathway-targeting ingredients (D). Notice that states with elevated proportions of certain estrogen, testosterone, or hormonal pathway ingredients relative to other hydraulic fracturing wells can be easily identified using these visual maps.
 

madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2162).png

Figure 4. Screenshots from Zip Searcher and well landing pages detailing the different functionalities, fields, and information contained on these pages. (A) The simple collapsed search interface. (B) The more detailed expanded search interface. (C) The interactive map displayed at the top of the results list. (D) The well search results containing the well and operator name, a summary of the well’s ingredient properties, the absolute distance from the entered location to the well, and a ‘learn more’ button. (E) The well landing page, displaying more in-depth information about the well as well as a comprehensive list of the well’s ingredients and the properties of these ingredients. We made these pages specifically with interpretability in mind—the search fields are easy to understand, and most of the information displayed is self-explanatory and does not require much background knowledge to interpret.
 

madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2164).png

Figure 5. Screenshots from the Data Explorer and well-landing pages detailing the download capabilities, data tables, and specific, in-depth information available on these pages. (A) The data download buttons for the well and ingredient data. (B) The well data table explorer with search and sort functionality. (C) The ingredient data table explorer with search and sort functionality. (D) The expanded isopropanol ingredient on the well landing page, displaying the genes, proteins, and biological pathways affected by this ingredient. We created the Data Explorer page and the expanded ingredients feature of the well landing page with a more research-purposed and knowledgeable audience in mind.
 

madman

Super Moderator
Screenshot (2165).png

Figure 6. Searching WellExplorer for hydraulic fracturing wells using ingredients that target estrogen pathways. Note that ‘estrogen’ is selected in the ‘genes and pathways affected’ option. Clicking on ‘locate wells’ will retrieve all wells using ingredients that target estrogen pathways ranked from the closest in distance (in miles)
 

captain

Active Member
Looks like just the wells they are talking about. The waste from these wells are trucked to injection wells to dispose of. I have one of them less than a half mile from my house. They pump this waste back in the ground 24/7. I would think the waste injection sites would be a bigger problem with the amount that goes into one.
 
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