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Her Son Died of a Rare Bone Cancer. Could Radioactive Fracking Waste Be to Blame?
As Janice Blanock peered through the chain link fence running along a popular bike and walking trail near her home in the Pittsburgh suburbs, she wondered if she was looking at something connected to her teen son Luke’s death from a rare cancer a decade ago: a large oil and gas industry storage yard filled with used pipes and discarded hoses, the ground strewn with flakes of rusting metal.
“I thought, is it possible that this could be radioactive,” Blanock said. “Then I figured no, they wouldn’t do that … People are riding bikes and taking walks with their infants. “I look at this site and I wonder if this has any connection to my son’s cancer, and could it happen again to other innocent kids playing in the creek and on the fields?”
The seven-acre yard is part of a larger industrial site in Cecil Township, a community of around 15,000 located in the southwestern corner of Pennsylvania’s Washington County. The fence, which runs for nearly half a mile, separates it from the Westland Branch of the Montour Trail, a 60-mile rail trail system that weaves through Pittsburgh’s suburbs.
Microplastics Linger Inside People and Animals, Multiple Studies Show. But Regulation Is Still Far Off.
As people age, cholesterol and fat gradually clog the walls of two large arteries carrying oxygen-rich blood to the brain. Over time, depending on a person’s diet and other lifestyle choices, the carotid arteries can narrow to the point surgeons intervene by scraping out calcified gunk, called plaque, to reduce the risk of stroke and other diseases. It turns out tiny bits of plastics pollution accumulated during this hardening of the arteries might increase the probability of future health problems.
Out of more than 300 patients who had their neck arteries scoured, Italian researchers reported, those with higher levels of plastics-laden plaque were more likely to suffer strokes, heart attacks or sudden death during the next three years. The 2024 study, published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, is among a growing amount of human and animal research suggesting plastics pose health hazards that only now are coming into focus.
Scientists are particularly concerned about microplastics, bits no larger than a grain of rice that could trigger heart and brain diseases and other ailments, either by their mere presence in people or from toxic chemicals leaching out of the particles.
Tinier fragments — nanoplastics — are 1/70th the diameter of a human hair. They might be even more dangerous.
Amid National PFAS Frenzy, the ‘Maine Model’ Shows States How to Stop ‘Forever Chemicals’ at the Source
PFAS are one of the biggest public health threats of our time. These “forever chemicals” have infested seemingly every facet of our lives, from water and soil to kitchen products, safety equipment, and even our babies’ toys. As a country we need real urgency to address this risk quickly and do it the right way.
Despite rollbacks and standstills of PFAS regulation federally, we’re seeing impressive bipartisan support to tackle forever chemicals at the state level. This is an important step in the right direction. But as states introduce legislation to regulate PFAS, it’s imperative that they move forward with responsible legislation that has been proven to be effective.
There are two policy paths moving through state legislatures, which I call the “Michigan model” and the “Maine model.” Maine and Michigan both lead the charge for state-level PFAS regulation, but there are two key differences in their approaches that make the Maine Model the gold standard for states to follow.
Pesticides ‘shatter’ Leaves of Iowa’s State Tree
Iowa Capital Dispatch reported:
In 1996, Tony Singh began rewilding a plot of land in LeClaire, hoping to restore its oak savanna, native prairie, woodlands and wetlands. Less than five years later, he noticed the leaves on his oak trees were in tatters. “When the leaf is coming out, if it is natural, it’s a beautiful thing,” Singh said. “But then they start spraying this pre-emergent herbicide, and the leaves get completely shattered.”
Over the last 20 years, Singh has been documenting the phenomenon and trying to raise awareness about it. But his 50-acre reserve is surrounded by an industrial agriculture system that is economically entwined with the land he seeks to restore.
“Acetochlor has been correlated strongly with oak tatters, where the tissue just is missing from the oak leaf, and you just see the veins, or with dicamba, you’ll see cupping and curling,” said Iowa Department of Natural Resources Forest Health Program Leader Tivon Feeley.
A Solution to Data Center Backlash? Put Them in Oil Fields.
Most Americans loathe data centers. Recent polling found that Democrats and Republicans alike would oppose having one in their neighborhood, and hundreds of communities across the country have fought against them, citing fears about noise, water contamination, and energy bills.
After years spent courting tech companies, many politicians are now vowing to protect their constituents from their development. In just the past month, policymakers in New York, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Utah have proposed limits on the facilities. For the AI startups and others racing to secure more computing power, the question seems to be not which projects will face opposition, but which won’t.
A project unveiled this week in California’s Central Valley suggests a potential answer. California Resources Corporation, the state’s largest oil company, wants to build a 600,000-square-foot data center campus in the Elk Hills oil field about two hours north of Los Angeles. It hopes to avoid the nationwide backlash from communities that have watched the outfits developing these sprawling operations swallow up farmland or install diesel generators near residential neighborhoods.
