Potential Public Health Risks of Silica Sand Mining and Processing

1. Potential Public Health Risks of Silica Sand Mining and Processing Wayne L Feyereisn MD FACP

2. Disclaimer • No financial disclosures • Research performed on personal time • References are based on peer reviewed journal articles except where noted • “What is needed “ section is authors conclusions based on the information presented.

3. The Main Message

4. What is Silica Sand?

5. Why is “our” sand important? • It’s Round – therefore it works better to pipe it down wells and Prop open fractured layers of shale • Its Hard- 8000 PSI of compression strength • Its Plentiful

6. Why our sand is plentiful

7. Why is it risky? • Our lungs have a great clearing mechanism in the bronchi- Anything larger than 10 microns is effectively cleared. Deposited in the mucus layer, goes to our gut and gets cleared. • Anything smaller than 10 microns, especially those particles smaller than 4 microns easily go all the way to the alveoli (air sacs )

8. Size Matters

9. Why is it risky?

10. What does it look like?

11. What else? • Silicosis is a Class 1 Carcinogen- that is it is known to cause cancer. • Implicated in cases of COPD Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease • Implicated in autoimmune diseases including • Scleroderma • Rheumatoid Arthritis • Lupus • Wegener’s Granulomatosis

12. What is special about Silica?

13. What is special about Silica?

14. What is special about Silica? • We have special cells (macrophages) to clear anything that makes it to the level of the alveoli (the air sacs). • The macrophages have a limit about how much they can clear • If the limit is exceeded, the cell dies, scar tissue happens. Scar tissue limits lung expansion and oxygen exchange= SILICOSIS

15. What is “the Limit”? • This is the million dollar question. • Studies based on gold and hardrock mining. • Kreiss &Zehn 41.6 years • Exposure of .05 mg/m3 30 cases/100 workers • Exposure of 0.10 mg/m3 90 cases/100 workers. • Other studies Hnizdo & Suis-Cremer 1993, Muir et al 1991, somewhat similar findings

16. What is the limit? • Only 5 states have standards • The State of California has done several research studies around sand and gravel mines and its OEHHS has set a standard of 3 ug/m3 as a maximal exposure risk (Myers 2010) • It requires monitoring of air around all sand mines and processing plants

17. What is the big deal about standards? Death rates by state 1996 to 2005 – MN 40 deaths in that period of time.

18. Niosh has a different standard of 50ug/m3 • How much respirable crystalline silica is the NIOSH REL (Reasonable exposure limits)? • 500 micrograms (μg’s) • Photo: Geoff Plumlee, USGS • NIOSH REL = 0.05 mg/m3 TWA • 0.05 mg/m3 = 50 micrograms (μg) • mg/m3 • 1 m3 of air = 1,000 liters • Normal breathing rate (moderate work, 1 work day) = 10 m3 (10,000 liters of air) • 50 micrograms x 10 m3 = 500 μg’s

19. Really-How much is this? 500 ug

20. Why is it difficult to figure out what the silica will do if you have daily exposure? Data from new cases 1993 to 2006 in Michigan and New Jersey –CDC eWorld

21. Its just the construction workers right? Primary Cases of silicosis 2000-2002 in California by Occupation.

22. Facts and Fallacies • Statements made by proponents of sand mining • Facts about the issues they comment on

23. Proponent statement“Industrial Silica Sand is Safe” • Depending on use for natural gas or for oil. Sand used for fracking is generally in the 20-70 sieve size range. • Pure round sand, with no contaminants, after processing- “Should be safe” • BUT

24. We just take off the top layers which are the Industrial Sand that carries no health risk-we leave the rest alone

25. Silica Sand is a mix • 25-50% of sand they mine they refer to as “fines” • Simply put this is sand below their usable size limit of .2mm or 70 sieve • All sands are mixtures in their natural state though there may be more fine sand at the bottom of a vein of sand than near the top.

26. What about the washed sand when its ready for transport its safe correct? • Worker Exposure to Crystalline Silica During Hydraulic Fracturing – Eric Esswein MSPH et al.

27. Silica exceeded exposure limits • 92 of 116 (79%) air samples collected at hydraulic fracturing sites exceeded the NIOSH REL for PM2.5 • 36 of the 116 (31%) samples exceeded the NIOSH REL by a factor of 10 or more. • The significance of these findings is that even if workers are properly using half-mask air-purifying respirators, they would not be sufficiently protected .

28. Silica sand is no different than Sandbox Sand

29. FallacyHow Industrial Silica Sand is different • MAGNITUDE:1 cubic yard vs 1000’s of cubic yards at a sand mine • DURATION:Sandbox’s operate for an hour Sand Mines operate for 16 hours day • AGGITATION AND MANIPULATION: Front end loaders, crushers, blasting, trucking vs hand shovel and plastic bucket.

30. Silica Particulate Monitoring This is a Sharp Thermoscientific Model 5030 It can detect PM2.5 down to 0.5 ug/ m3

31. EOG Chippewa Falls • Monitoring by Crispin Pierce PhD and students • Ongoing studies with perimeter monitoring. • Studying PM 10 PM2.5 Preliminary finding of some readings above New York standards and at or near current California standards.

32. Ambient Silica is At or Near Standards from Other States WOHL Preliminary PM 4 silica data from an industry-sponsored study (John Richards, PhD) has measured the presence of silica at EOG (and the Towns of Howard and Cooks Valley mines) at around 0.0005—0.001 mg/m3).

33. Silica Standards • Standards in 5 states for Silica in Ambient Air • California 3 mcg/m3- based on non-cancer (silicosis risk) • Texas 0.27 mcg/m3- based on cancer risk exceeding 1/100,000 • New York 0.6 mcg/m3 • Minnesota NO STANDARD • Wisconsin NO STANDARD • Are you seeing a problem here?

34. PM2.5 Study EOG Plant Operating http://people.uwec.edu/piercech/InitialPM.pdf By Crispin Pierce et al U of W Eau Claire

35. PM 2.5 Under Varying conditions Crispin Pierce et al http://people.uwec.edu/piercech/InitialPM.pdf

36. We use polyacrylamide as a flocculent and it is perfectly safe • Fact or Fallacy? • Polyacrylamide IS safe. • It breaks down to Acrylamide- not safe at all • Heat breaks it down • Shear forces break it down • Acrylamide is a neurotoxin, that is, it damages peripheral nerves and the brain. It also is considered a class 2b carcinogen

37. Acrylamide • Its concentration can increase in a holding pond due to UV irradiation. It also after a period of time will start to decrease in concentration. • It can be spread in a thin layer over dirt and be rendered inert. • If it washes quickly through sand into the aquifer it is toxic • .5 parts per billion makes water undrinkable • World Health Organization standard 2011

38. Spills don’t happen do they? Preferred Sands Blair Wisconsin

39. Sand Spills don’t happen do they?When the pond spills so does the acrylamide Soderbeck mine near Grantsburg WI

40. b Polluted water flows to beaver dam, then to St. Croix River Sediment-filled water overflows holding pond and flows downhill to creek

41. Additional Medical Risks • Diesel Particulates • Known carcinogen in concentration • It shortens the lives of 22,000 people/year • http://www.4cleanair.org/comments/cancerriskreport.pdf • Known risk for cardiovascular events -50% increased risk of heart attacks with acute exposure. Greater risk walking or riding a bike than in a car.

42. Additional Medical Risks • Diesel Particulates • http://www.catf.us/diesel/dieselhealth/county.php?c=27169&site=0 • Winona • The lifetime cancer risk from diesel soot in your community exceeds the risk of all other air toxins tracked by EPA combined. 80th Percentile of all US Counties • The average lifetime diesel soot cancer risk for a resident of Winona County is 1 in 22,418 • This risk is 45 times greater than EPA's acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million.

43. How the Risk from Diesel Soot in Winona County Compares to Other Minnesota Counties:Rank Within State: 13 of 87 counties Winona counties cancer risk is 45 times greater than EPA's acceptable cancer level of 1 in a million

44. Diesel use by mines • EAW’s for Dobelstein and Yoder (example) each would use 500,000 gallons of diesel /year • All of Minnesota’s diesel use per day of #2 diesel at the retail level is 250,000 gallons

45. Additional Medical Risks • Traffic Safety • 1 in 5 collisions with trucks this size= death • Water Quality • During Mining • Diesel and hydraulic leakage • Chemicals in sand hauled back to mine

46. Additional Medical Risks • Water Quality Risks after mining complete • Alteration in pH due to sulfites exposed during mining • Contaminants entering ground water through Karst Topography- continued enhanced risk of chemicals and bacteria after finished with reduced filtration bed.

47. What is needed • Silica air standards , review of current standards and determine which one, but choose one • Require that all sand mining and processing operations install air monitors every 1000 feet on the perimeter and meet three standards: • The 3 or .27 or 0.6 ug/m3 standard for silica • The EPA PM 10 NAAQS standard • The EPA PM 2.5 standards

48. What is needed • Acrylamide monitoring of pond water • Acrylamide monitoring of drying facilities at sand processing site for air • Acrylamide monitoring of sand returned to the sand mine • Minimize diesel use (no roadway transport of sand)

49. What is needed. • Sand mines and processing are coming AHEAD of the regulation-That is a problem • The safest way to mine and process sand is: • Start by having the plant and processing facility in the least densely populated area’s • -The further from the epicenter of this activity the lower the risk • Rail spurs directly into the facility-No trucks to transport

50. The Main Message