This can be viewed in full in our Reading Room link on the left of the ACA home page.
Here are the first 2 of 22 pages of her report:
TEDX
The Endocrine Disruption Exchange
211 Grand Avenue, Suite 114
P.O. Box 1407
Paonia, CO 81428
Phone & Fax: 970-527-4082
tedx@tds.net
October 25, 2007
Written testimony of Theo Colborn, PhD, President of TEDX, Paonia, Colorado
before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
hearing on The Applicability of Federal Requirements to Protect Public Health
and the Environment from Oil and Gas Development, October 31, 2007.
Good morning Mr. Waxman and members of the Committee. Thank you for this opportunity to
speak to you about the emerging public health and environmental issues as a result of natural gas
production in the west. My name is Theo Colborn. I am here to speak as an environmental health analyst
and as a resident of western Colorado whose watershed and air are being threatened by natural gas
production and delivery. I have a B.S. in pharmacy from Rutgers University, an M.A. in fresh water
ecology from Western State College of Colorado, and a PhD in zoology, with distributed minors in
epidemiology, toxicology, and water chemistry from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. My field and
laboratory research for these degrees looked at the mobilization of low levels of toxic trace metals in high
altitude streams in Colorado. In 1985 I moved to Washington DC on a Fellowship from the US Congress,
Office of Technology Assessment and later established and ran the Wildlife and Contaminants Program at
World Wildlife Fund until 2002. I have served on the EPA Science Advisory Board and several EPA
panels; on a Canada/US International Joint Commission Health Committee since 1989; advised
Environment Canada, Health Canada, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Department of the Interior,
the ATSDR; and advised similar government agencies in Europe, the UK, and Japan. I have published in
scientific journals and books on the effects of low level and/or ambient exposure to toxic chemicals called
endocrine disruptors which has triggered action at the state, national, and international level to improve the
protocols for testing chemicals when determining their safety.
In 2002, I returned to Paonia, Colorado where I established TEDX (The Endocrine Disruption
Exchange) and became its president. At that time I also accepted a Professorship at the University of
Florida, Gainesville.
I had no intention of getting involved with natural gas development when I set up my non-profit
until someone handed me the formula for the fracturing fluid to be used in 17 proposed gas wells on the
Grand Mesa National Forest, which my family and I consider our back yard. After looking at the
possible health effects of just one of the chemicals the company planned to use, I decided to submit a
letter to the regional US Forest Service and BLM Director who were issuing the drilling permits. In the
letter I described the structure and physical characteristics of the chemical 2-butoxy ethanol (2-BE), as
well as a long list of bizarre health effects that were possible at relatively low levels of exposure. 2-BE is
odorless, colorless,
tasteless, and evaporates at room temperature. If this chemical were to surface as a gas or get into a
drinking water supply, it could cause health problems in domestic and wild animals and humans that
could baffle veterinarians or physicians. See Appendix A.
Two years later, a woman from Silt, Garfield County, Colorado called to tell me that she had
developed a very rare adrenal tumor and had to have the tumor and her adrenal gland removed. One of
the effects of 2-BE was adrenal tumors. She told me that she lived within 900 feet of a busy gas well pad
where frac’ing took place frequently. During one frac’ing episode her domestic water well erupted. She
also began describing the health problems of others who lived near her. This prompted me to begin to
find out more about how natural gas is produced. When I found out that each fracturing incident,
commonly called frac’ing, uses approximately one million gallons of fluid and that each well can be
frac’ed 10 times or more, I became very interested.
Soon TEDX became a clearing house for information about the products that were being used in
natural gas operations. In order to organize the data we set up computer spreadsheets. We also searched
the peer reviewed literature and government and industry documents for the health effects of the
chemicals on our list and added the information to the spreadsheets. We have over 1,700 citations to
back up the Colorado data. See Appendix B.
It is impossible to provide quantitative information about what is being used at any stage of
developing natural gas because much of this information is proprietary. For example, in what quantities
and mixtures are the products being used? How much water or other fluids are used to attain the million
gallons needed to fracture a well? TEDX believes that every citizen has a right to know what is being
introduced into our pristine and very fragile, arid ecosystems where every drop of potable water is
precious. Nonetheless, we are certain of one thing, even at extremely low levels one would not want to
drink the majority of the chemicals on the list.
The last time TEDX updated the Colorado spreadsheet, there were 171 products and 245
chemicals on the list. 92% of the products had health effects. The other 8% are products for which there
is no information because it is either proprietary or no health studies could be found. Most of the
products had multiple health effects with some having as many as 14 effects. See Appendix B.
As the list of the products grew, a consistent pattern of health effects kept emerging. Taking into
consideration that air and water were the most likely pathways of exposures, we broke out the chemicals
into two groups: volatile chemicals and water soluble. We also realize now that air is the most
immediate pathway. From 68% to 86% of the volatile chemicals cause mild to severe irritation of the
skin, eye, sinuses, nose, throat, lungs, and the stomach, and cause effects on the brain and nervous
system ranging from headaches, blackouts, memory loss, confusion, fatigue or exhaustion, and
permanent neuropathies. Many of these chemicals are called sensitizers; they can lead to the
development of allergic reactions. 35% to 55% of the chemicals cause disorders that develop slowly
such as cardiovascular, kidney, immune system changes, and reproductive organ damage and are toxic
to wildlife. Medical practitioners have no way to link health effects such as these with an environmental
contaminant. See Appendix B.
We also found that the muds used in drilling are not as safe as industry claims. Using data from a
drilling operation where there had been a blowout, the pattern of the possible health effects of the
chemicals used in that operation, matched the general health pattern of our overall analyses. See
Appendix C.
