Fracking fluids 'no more toxic than substances found in the home'

This is the conclusion of researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder who analysed samples of fracking fluid that were collected in five US states.

Fracking fluid is largely comprised of water and sand, but oil and gas companies also add other chemicals, including anti-bacterial agents, corrosion inhibitors and surfactants. Surfactants reduce the surface tension between water and oil, allowing for more oil to be extracted from porous rock underground.

In a new study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry, the research team identified the surfactants found in fracking fluid samples from Colorado, Louisiana, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Texas. The results reportedly show that the chemicals found in the fluid samples were also commonly found in products ranging from toothpaste to laxatives to detergent to ice cream.

‘This is the first published paper that identifies some of the organic fracking chemicals going down the well that companies use,’ said Michael Thurman, lead author of the paper and a co-founder of the Laboratory for Environmental Mass Spectrometry in CU-Boulder’s College of Engineering and Applied Science. ‘We found chemicals in the samples we were running that most of us are putting down our drains at home.’