Poor thing. She's obviously doomed.
Posted on 06/26/2012 10:24:27 PM PDT by Hunton Peck
Residents are uneasy over potential health risks posed by silica.
Open train cars filled with sand have raised alarm in St. Paul's St. Anthony Park neighborhood, where some residents wonder if the silica that comprises 80 percent of the unprocessed sand is safe.
The cars, which often are parked in a rail yard sandwiched between homes and an industrial zone, are appearing on a more regular basis since an oil boom has increased the demand for the sand for its hydrofracking operations.
BNSF Railway Co., which transports the sand, and Minnesota Commercial Railway representatives said the trains are carrying wet "unprocessed raw sand" -- not pure frac sand -- and that it isn't a health risk. The concern, however, is that nearly all information about silica's health impact are derived from studies in the workplace, where it has been shown to cause cancer, and not of ambient exposure.
"We know it's [silica] not good for you," said Hillary Carpentar, a toxicologist with the Minnesota Department of Health. "It's a classic occupational toxin. I think the concern is that we just don't know" about casual exposure.
Hydrofracking has grown in recent years, spurring a frac sand gold rush in the Upper Midwest. Southeastern Minnesota and Wisconsin have become ideological and environmental battlegrounds....
Though railroad officials insist there is no health hazard, they, along with representatives of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency will meet with residents Wednesday night.
***
It's little comfort for people such as Jim Tittle, a St. Paul resident who shops in St. Anthony Park.
"The point isn't that we are certain that the dust will make people sick at this level of exposure," said Tittle, an activist who is making a documentary on the industry.
(Excerpt) Read more at startribune.com ...
My dad bought me a truck load of sand every year for my birthday when I was a kid. There was a little spring seep just above where he dumped it. Me and my siblings played for hours and hours and hours building, damming, destroying, and everything else you could do with a huge sand pile and a water source. Thanks Dad.
You absolutely cannot make this stuff up. I just hope these retards are not of Scandinavian descent.
I would.
Do you think passing by in a rail car a few times a day comes anywhere close to the exposure of people living at the beach or in the desert?
Well, naturally-ocurring sand can get picked up by wind and blown around to where unsuspecting citizens breathe it in. So the answer is obvious - we must outlaw wind.
Send them all to Arizona, certainly there is no sand there.
The chicken little crowd (”the sky is falling, the sky is falling”) people will stop at nothing to stop what ever they are against.
Big difference between wet natural sand grains and dry nano-sized dust. It is like comparing an elephant to a bacterium.
It seems far-fetched to call silica a *toxin*. It is, actually, inert. However, dry silica dust is a lung irritant. However, this is wet sand, not silica dust.
We have a sandblaster. It is enclosed. It uses recoverable glass beads. It produces a fine glass dust. A mask is advised during use. We use sand in our pool filter. It is advisable to not refill the filter on an extremely windy day. Observation of beach sand shows that the dry particles normally rise a small amount and I cannot ever recall inhaling sand at the beach.
Put a tarp over the rail cars. Non-problem solved.
“Poor thing. She’s obviously doomed.”
She needs comforting in her last days, hours, moments...your chance to be a hero as you expose yourself to the deadly silicone dioxide hazards while aiding the poor doomed lass...
Given the extreme dangers posed by sand, these grains should be removed VERY carefully, one by one if possible.
Can I do it??
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