Dr Elizabeth Cullen of the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association believes public health dictates that we should not allow the practice of fracking for fossil fuels to take hold in Ireland.
The protection of public health demands constant vigilance and a willingness to learn about new challenges. Along with climate change, our demand for fossil fuels is now posing a new public health problem. The Lough Allen and Clare basin districts (including counties Cavan, Leitrim, Roscommon, Fermanagh, Mayo, Sligo, Donegal, Monaghan, Clare, Limerick, Cork and Kerry) now face the problem of fracking.
Fracking is a method of obtaining fossil fuels by injecting fluid at very high pressures into the underground shale rock. This process creates new fractures and thereby allows access to the fossil fuels held in pores in the rock. The fractures are kept open by introducing a fluid, called a proppant, into the crevices.
The proppant is primarily water and sand, but also includes chemicals. High risks of hazardous chemical contamination of ground water is the main but not sole reason why Genon Jenson, director of the Health and Environmental Alliance, calls fracking the next big environmental health challenge.
Irish Medical Times
No comments:
Post a Comment