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Toxic Tuesdays

Radon

Toxic Tuesdays

CHEJ highlights several toxic chemicals and the communities fighting to keep their citizens safe from harm.

Radon

Radon is a colorless, tasteless and odorless gas that is radioactive and can cause cancer. It forms naturally when radioactive elements like uranium, thorium, or radium break down. This element can then move around in the environment by migrating as a gas or by dissolving in moving groundwater.

The main health concern surrounding radon is lung cancer. In the United States, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer, after smoking. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Surgeon General’s office estimate that radon is responsible for more than 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year in the country. This risk is greatly increased among people who smoke.

Radon can affect your health by entering the body as a gas or in one of its multiple “progeny” forms. These progenies are other radioactive elements that form when radon decays and gives off radiation. Although they are solid, these progenies can still move around because they attach to dust particles that are easily carried around in air. As a result, the main route of exposure to radon and its progenies is through inhalation of contaminated air. The main source of exposure is people’s homes, especially poorly ventilated basements. Once breathed in, radon and its progeny particles can deposit in your lungs and impart a significant dose of radiation to the lung tissue.

Radioactive dust particles similar to those formed from radon decay are a concern for the people of Rostraver Township who live around the Westmorland landfill in Pennsylvania. Although mostly a solid waste landfill, Westmoreland also accepts certain hazardous wastes including fracking waste that in many instances is radioactive. This radioactive waste, when dissolved in the landfill’s leachate (water inside the landfill with waste dissolved in it), is planned on being treated by a new and unproved system that essentially boils leachate. The result is the formation of dust particles that can contain radioactive elements attached to them. CHEJ has helped the group working with the local community, Protect PT, with this and several other issues surrounding the proposed leachate treatment system.

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Toxic Tuesdays

Hydraulic Fracturing

Toxic Tuesdays

CHEJ highlights several toxic chemicals and the communities fighting to keep their citizens safe from harm.

Hydraulic fracturing

Hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking) is a technique that uses pressurized liquid to fracture bedrock in order to the extract the oil or gas inside. The process installs a steel pipe into a well bore and injects fracking fluid into the deep layers of rock. Once the rock is no longer able to absorb this fluid, it cracks. Materials in the fracking fluid keep these cracks open so the oil or gas beneath can flow freely and be collected. Fracking fluid usually consists of water, sand or beads, and a mixture of chemicals. After injection into the rock, some fracking fluid remains underground and some flows back to the surface. This flowback is meant to be collected for disposal.

Many of the chemicals used in fracking fluid are not publicly known. However, some of the ones that are known have harmful effects on human health, including causing cancer. Some of these dangerous chemicals in fracking fluid include: benzene, ethylbenzene, naphthalene, methanol, formaldehyde, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and 1,2-dichloroethane. And with hundreds of thousands to millions of gallons of liquid being used to fracture a single well, these chemicals can be dangerous even if they constitute a small percentage of the fracking fluid. In fact, flowback has been found to have levels of some of these chemicals that far exceed the Environmental Protection Agency’s limits for safe water. People can be exposed to these chemicals through contamination of drinking water supplies, physical contact with the flowback waste, or inhaling chemicals after they evaporate into the air from open-air waste pits. A 2010 report summarized health effects from 353 chemicals in fracking fluid, including skin, respiratory, liver, brain, immune, kidney, heart, and blood disorders.

Liveable Arlington is a grassroots organization founded in 2015 to fight fracking and drilling in Arlington, Texas in order to protect their air and water. In particular, they are concerned about the health impacts on children due to wells located close to residences, schools, and day care centers. In 2020 their organizing helped stop the issuance of permits for new gas wells near a local preschool. In 2021 they helped pressure their city council to revise an ordinance to increase the required distance between a drilling zone and day care centers. Liveable Arlington proves that local grassroots efforts can win local fights to keep our communities safe.

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Toxic Tuesdays

Sulfur dioxide

Toxic Tuesdays

CHEJ highlights several toxic chemicals and the communities fighting to keep their citizens safe from harm.

Sulfur Dioxide

Sulfur dioxide is a gas with a strong odor that is released into the air through coal and oil burning. People can be exposed to sulfur dioxide by inhaling contaminated air. Workers at facilities where it is made as a by-product (such as power plants and fertilizer manufacturing plants) are most at risk, but anyone who lives near areas where sulfur dioxide is made may be in danger too.

Breathing low levels of sulfur dioxide can cause mild symptoms such as fatigue, headache, and nausea. At higher levels, sulfur dioxide causes more serious respiratory effects such as chest tightness and difficulty breathing. It also exacerbates existing respiratory diseases such as asthma. Children may be especially vulnerable to sulfur dioxide because they breathe larger volumes of air relative to their body weight than adults do. Studies have shown that children exposed so sulfur dioxide may develop more respiratory illnesses and make more emergency room visits than other children. They may even develop other respiratory problems as they get older. Children with asthma seem to be particularly sensitive to sulfur dioxide exposure.

The Bridgeton Sanitary Landfill just north of St. Louis, Missouri is a 52 acre site that extends 240 feet below ground and accepted solid waste from 1985 to 2004. In 2010, testing indicated the landfill had an underground fire, with this combustion ultimately releasing gases including sulfur dioxide above ground. Residents in the surrounding area reported strong odors of sulfur dioxide even after gas and odor mitigation systems were put into place in 2013. The fire continued to burn for years, resulting in continued gas and odor emissions despite the mitigation systems.

A 2018 report by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services concluded that residents may have inhaled harmful levels of sulfur dioxide until mitigation and remediation efforts in 2013 when sulfur dioxide levels were more than ten times higher than health-based guidelines. The report also acknowledged that residents may have experienced psychological effects of emissions, noting that offensive odors like sulfur dioxide are known to cause stress, irritability, impaired mood, anxiety, depression, and decreased quality of life.

Despite mitigation and air monitoring efforts, the people who live near the Bridgeton Landfill are still breathing and smelling sulfur dioxide. The grassroots group Just Moms STL works to educate the community and fight for comprehensive cleanup. In particular, they note how children may be especially vulnerable to these chemicals and that there are several schools, daycares, and parks within 3 miles of the landfill. Even more distressing, the landfill is part of a larger landfill area called the West Lake landfill that contains radioactive waste, so uncontrolled underground fires could be catastrophic. Just Moms STL has brought national attention to these sites, forced increased transparency from government agencies, and recently won a $253 million cleanup of the West Lake site. These are exciting successes towards their goal of a secure and permanent solution to keeping their community safe.

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The Oil and Gas Industry is Asking for Relief

The American Petroleum Institute (API) has requested temporary regulatory relief for the oil and gas industry. In a letter sent to President Trump, API has asked for a suspension of certain regulatory requirements to assist in operations during a time of decreasing oil and gas prices and decreased staff. Some requirements under question include record keeping, non-essential inspections and audits, and trainings. Read More.

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News Archive

Ohio Protests the Anti-Protest Bill

The Ohio House Public Utilities Committee approved Senate Bill 33 on Thursday, January 29. The government building was packed with state residents ready to speak in opposition of the bill. SB 33 is aimed at protecting oil and gas production infrastructure, while in turn, making many acts of protest against the industry potentially illegal. After the passing of the bill, residents spoke out in frustration by chanting “This is our house.” The crowds settled after Ohio state troopers arrived on scene; however, it might foreshadow Ohio’s movement towards limiting protesters’ freedom of speech. Read More.

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Backyard Talk

Veto Ohio Senate Bill 33

If you live in a state with any type of oil, gas, pipeline, PAY ATTENTION! In fact, if we start seeing bills like the one before the Ohio legislature it doesn’t even have to be an oil/gas producing state.  The Ohio bill lists 73 different “Critical Infrastructures”. 
Below you will see a letter to Ohio Governor Mike DeWine from citizens of Ohio asking for him to veto SB 33 if it comes to his desk.  The letter will help you understand what is going on in many states.  
To Ohio Governor Mike DeWine:
The undersigned environmental justice, racial justice, civil justice, criminal justice, and other civil society groups and individuals urge you to veto Ohio Senate Bill 33 (SB 33). The bill would undermine and silence already marginalized voices. SB 33 is an unnecessary proposal that creates new draconian penalties for conduct already covered by existing criminal statutes and could have dire unintended consequences. SB 33 is part of a national trend of so-called “critical infrastructure” legislation promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) that is intended to neutralize citizen activism around oil and gas infrastructures. We urge you to oppose SB 33.
 
Critical infrastructure bills disproportionately affect some of the most underrepresented communities, criminalizing their right to protest. These bills target many already marginalized voices, in reaction to some of the most high-profile protests in recent history. Communities of color, low-wealth communities and our Native American population are most affected by unchecked environmental pollution; family farms have the most to lose by unfair land-grabs for large infrastructure projects. These communities have a right to peacefully resist environmentally unsafe and unjust policies and unchecked corporate abuse.
SB 33 is purportedly designed to protect critical infrastructure, but the definition of “critical infrastructure” is overly broad and would cover large swaths of the state in urban, suburban, and rural areas, creating the unintended consequence of ensnaring many in Ohio’s already overburdened criminal justice system.
Additionally, the bill does not distinguish between criminal damages of one dollar or a million dollars. At a time when many people, including lawmakers, have recognized the deleterious effects that mass incarceration has had on society and have attempted to rectify laws that have criminalized certain conduct or imposed unreasonable penalties, SB 33 is a giant step backwards. By creating a whole new class of nonviolent offenders who could serve serious prison time, it is antithetical to criminal justice reform.
Environmental advocacy, including civil disobedience, does not threaten physical infrastructure or safety. It threatens profits. Critical infrastructure bills are based on model legislation crafted by corporate interests to establish special protections for some private industries engaged in controversial practices that attract opposition and protest. These bills, including SB 33, are rooted in governments hostile attitudes toward environmental justice advocacy because it threatens the profits of these corporations. Whenever states enact legislation based on these hostile attitudes towards particular political speech, it has a chilling effect that will be felt widely.
We urge you to veto SB 33 if and when it comes across your desk. From a criminal justice reform perspective, this bill is damaging, as it creates new steep penalties for conduct that is already covered under existing criminal law. These new steep penalties and special protections for so-called critical infrastructure are rooted in animus towards anti-pipeline protesters. It is inappropriate for states to seek to legislate in order to penalize individuals for their First Amendment-protected points of view.

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Backyard Talk News Archive

Native Nations Rise March: A Powerful Uprising for Indigenous Rights

Indigenous people from around the world gathered to promote sovereignty, resistance, respect, justice and love at the Native Nations Rise March 10th. I was honored to walk along side of Indigenous women, children and men.  The weather was freezing with rain, sleet and snow. The wind howled as if joining the marches with a powerful message of protecting the earth and halting the harms.
The march began at the United States Army Corps of Engineers building and then moved past the Trump International Hotel. In front of the Trump Hotel a short demonstration was held to let guests and Trump hear the voices of the people. Now completely frozen, I continued to march to the White House.  Throughout the march there was a unified message aimed at President Donald Trump and his administration: Mni Wiconi, “Water is Life!” The chant has become a shorthand for tribes’ struggle to reassert tribal sovereignty and self-determination over their physical and spiritual spheres. The phrase was joined by many other expressions aimed at attracting the attention of the federal government: “We stand with Standing Rock!” – “Keep the oil in the soil, you can’t drink oil!” – “Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Donald Trump has got to go!” – And, “Shame, shame, shame!”
A rally with extraordinary speakers joined at the end of the March at a park, in front of the White House. Powerful words were voiced by Native leaders. It was a march that I will always hold close to my heart. Although I was frozen to the bone – I felt fire in the belly and ready to take on the fight for justice.
Read more here.