Dead Babies Near Oil Drilling Sites Raise Questions for Researchers

Colorado, Health Concerns/Benefits, Opinions, R & D Focus, Sustainability, Utah

October 31, 2014

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by Nancy Lofholm (The Denver Post) … For some reason, one that is not known and may never be, Beau (Murphy) and a dozen other infants died in this oil-booming basin last year. Was this spike a fluke? Bad luck? Or were these babies victims of air pollution fed by the nearly 12,000 oil and gas wells in one of the most energy-rich areas in the country?
Some scientists whose research focuses on the effect of certain drilling-related chemicals on fetal development believe there could be a link.
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Questions about drilling’s possible effect on infants and the unborn aren’t confined to this northeast corner of Utah. Late in 2013, an unusually high number of fetal anomalies in Glenwood Springs, 175 miles away in Colorado, were reported to state authorities. A study found no connection with drilling.
Concerns have been raised in other areas of heavy drilling, but no clusters have been documented. No dots have been connected. But there are some in the scientific and medical communities working to try to make a connection.
“I suspect it is real — that there is a relationship,” said Susan Nagel, Ph.D, a University of Missouri School of Medicine researcher who is focusing her studies on fracking-fluid chemicals that affect hormones.
Scads of medical studies have concluded that air pollution can harm embryos. Drilling is a documented contributor to that pollution. It is a given that some of the harmful chemicals released in drilling, like benzene, toluene and xylenes, can cross the placental barrier and cause heart, brain and spinal defects.
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Air pollution is often a stew of chemicals and particles from multiple sources. In Vernal, diesel pickups and fracking rigs roll down Main Street spewing fumes.
Oil field-support businesses, with their tanks of fluids and fuels, string out for miles. A coal-fired power plant sends a plume of smoke high in the air. A recent National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration study showed dangerously high levels of ozone in the Uintah Basin around Vernal. Last winter, ozone levels spiked well beyond the safe level set by the Environmental Protection Agency — worse than the highest ozone days in Los Angeles. The study blamed the oil and gas industry.
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Twice as many residents here smoke than in the rest of Utah. More residents, in an area rife with new fast-food chains, are overweight. More residents admit to drinking heavily. There are more teen mothers and more mothers on average who don’t get good prenatal care. READ MORE

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