Here is an online tool to help you know and understand the threats present in the air and water at fracking sites.

Online tool launched to help identify chemical exposure

The Environmental Health Project’s Compounds of Concern tool helps residents living near industrial facilities learn about the chemicals and compounds that may be exposed to, and their potential health risks.

Energy companies and those who enable their environmental damage downplay the effects of toxic substances in produced water and releases of vapor and gas into the atmosphere. Nothing that happens around fracking improves the environment or the health of those exposed.

LNG increases health risks by supporting additional wells and production. But it also brings added risks of its own. Leaks and flares produce hazards for the locals. (You knew these facilities would not improve the air or safety of the neighborhood, didn’t you?) And having large volumes of gas under extreme pressure in huge spherical tanks . . . what could possibly go wrong? What mischief could a rogue band of terrorists make?

Opinion: Frontline communities at serious health risks from LNG, growing body of scientific research shows

Opinion: Governments need to show — through a comprehensive, cumulative and independent health impacts assessment — that the industry is safe

There is a special word that experts use to describe the hazard: “BLEV.” Here’s what you get when you Google the word:

• Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE):This refers to a specific type of explosion characterized by the rapid vaporization of a liquid due to a sudden pressure drop. 
• Mechanism:When a vessel containing a pressurized liquid, like propane or another chemical, is heated to a temperature exceeding its boiling point at normal atmospheric pressure, the liquid inside becomes superheated. If the vessel ruptures, the pressure inside drops suddenly, causing the superheated liquid to flash into vapor. 
• Consequences:This rapid vaporization leads to a significant expansion of volume, generating a powerful explosion. The explosion can be accompanied by a large fireball, blast waves, and the projection of debris from the ruptured vessel. 
• Danger:BLEVEs are extremely dangerous, posing risks of injury, death, and significant property damage. 

If the explosion is preceded by leaked gas that spreads through the neighborhood, mixing with air, the horrendous effects are multiplied because the explosive gas/air mix is everywhere, and the explosion envelops everything. With LNG tanks, the amount of stored energy is vast, and the radiated heat from the expanding fireball sears and ignites everything that can burn. Read more here.

How many of the politicians and investors who seek LNG terminals want to live near one?

(I hear only the crickets.)

LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) makes it possible to transport large quantities of fossil energy to foreign countries that want to make plastic or burn it as fuel. Neither of these uses is kind to Mother Earth.

Tracking Fracking | Watershed Sentinel

In light of new research on health impacts, a working group is renewing calls to to add fracking chemicals to Canada’s National Pollution Release Inventory.

Solution: Keep it in the ground.

The energy industry is notorious for doing the bare minimum in terms of ethical and legal protection of the environment. Here’s more news of environmental concerns.

Truckers Say Oil and Gas Companies Are Violating Hazardous Materials Transport Regulations – Inside Climate News

The fracking industry says its operators strictly adhere to regulations, and it has “no greater priority” than ensuring worker and community safety.