Frack You

[bigbadberry3]

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archi ... ls/255030/

Doctor: You're sick.

Patient: Why?

Doctor: It's a secret.

[n00b240]

thought you were talkin about those frackin cylons...

[bigbadberry3]

Maybe number 6....

[n00b240]

I was thinking more of number 8

[hannibal]

Oil and gas companies are hiding behind the premise that the fracking cocktail is proprietary info. Meanwhile, they claim it's safe and harmless to people and the environment. However, no one can verify these claims without knowing what chemicals are being used.

I think Obama proposed a law which would require companies to disclose the types and amounts of chemicals used. And i think it's a good idea...

[stebo0728]

I dont quite understand this one. There is already law that should be handling this. A company is supposed to, by OSHA standards, have MSDS sheets available for any and all chemicals used, or even just stored, in its facilities. How would this be any different? Perhaps the recipe or how chemicals are combined are kept secret, but the identity of each chemical should be disclosed already. If its not, then why?

[C-Kwik]

I dont quite understand this one. There is already law that should be handling this. A company is supposed to, by OSHA standards, have MSDS sheets available for any and all chemicals used, or even just stored, in its facilities. How would this be any different? Perhaps the recipe or how chemicals are combined are kept secret, but the identity of each chemical should be disclosed already. If its not, then why?

Read the article again. It doesn't say the doctors aren't entitled to the information. According to the article, the bill just allows the drillers to require a confidentiality agreement that prohibits doctors from sharing that information with anyone else, including the patient.

As for being required to disclose the chemicals, the article claims this:


At the federal level, natural gas developers have long been allowed to keep the mixture of chemicals they use in fracking fluid a secret from the general public, protecting it as "proprietary information." The industry is exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory -- the program that ensures that communities are given information about what companies are releasing. In 2005 the industry successfully lobbied for an exemption from EPA regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act as well, in what is often referred to as the "Halliburton Loophole."