‘Dangerously high’ levels of airborne carcinogens found at US fracking sites

Stacy Summary: I doubt the claim that the UK will have higher standards reducing these carcinogens to negligible levels. But, no doubt, this news ought to boost property values. And while they will only get £50 for drilling under their property, at least the British people will have an NHS to treat them for any cancer they might develop. And, as for Americans, well, I guess they prove Lenin right: “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.”

Levels of benzene, formaldehyde and hydrogen sulphide were many times above the US’s air pollution limits and were detected within residential areas near to fracking wells drilled across five different states, the researchers said.

Some levels of benzene – a known carcinogen – were more than 30 times the concentrations that would be found in the air at a petrol station when filling a car with fuel, they said.

“I think we should be very concerned about these findings. Benzene and formaldehyde are both known to be human carcinogens,” said David Carpenter, professor of environmental health science as the University of Albany in New York, who led the study.