Sunday, March 14, 2010

Denton County Flagged for Having High Levels of Chromium In The Air

One source that can put Chromium into the air and water is gas and oil drilling. The industry uses Hexavalent Chromium as a anti-corrosive agent. It does have a dangerous down side and that is it is another chemical that can cause many health effects.

This article in Emerging Health Threats states that Denton County has been flagged for having some of the highest levels of Chromium in the air.

Other “hot spots” flagged by the researchers include Middlesex County in Massachusetts, and Denton County in Texas.

Last summer large amounts of Hexavalent Chromium were found in drinking water wells in Midland, TX. The only industry in the area is Oil and Gas. Click here to read article.

Hexavalent chromium compounds, a toxic form of the element chromium, are man-made and used as an anticorrosive and rust inhibitor.

In 2003, United States soldiers were exposed to large amounts of Hexavalent Chromium while guarding Halliburton Contractors in Iraq. Click here to read complete article.

The group, Veterans for Common Sense, reports that at least 48 Oregon soldiers tasked with protecting Haliburton contractors at the Qarmat Ali water treatment plant, were exposed.

The chemical, Hexavalent Chromium Salts, are best exemplified by various Dichromate salts usually used to remove ALL traces of organic material by chemically burning them from any other material.

This corrosive action also acts on human skin where it causes severe irritation and especially the nose, trachea and lungs where it causes nosebleeds, coughing, pain on breathing and headaches, but especially lung cancer.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

2 businesses on FM407 in Flower Mound, have been dumping hexavalent chromium, cyanides, cyanates, nickells and various other toxic chemicals into the FM sewer system for more than 20 years. Theorhetically, it is treated, but treatment systems rarely work as they should. Hexavalent chromium is treated with sodium bisulfite ( a food additive) to convert it to trivalent chromium, which doesn't sound much better. Ask the water treatment plant about those "heavy flow" days. tens of thousands of gallons of "treated" water has flowed into the system for many years. I know this isn't oil and gas, but the contamination is far worse.