Increases in trade secret designations in hydraulic fracturing fluids and their potential implications for environmental health and water quality.

Hydraulic fracturing is an increasingly common method of oil and gas extraction across the United States. Many of the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing processes have been proven detrimental to human and environmental health. While disclosure frameworks have advanced significantly in the last 20 years, the practice of withholding chemical identities as "trade secrets" or "proprietary claims" continues to represent a major absence in the data available on hydraulic fracturing. Here, we analyze rates of trade secret claims using FracFocus, a nationwide database of hydraulic fracturing data, from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2022. We use the open-source tool Open-FF, which collates FracFocus data, makes it accessible for systematic analysis, and performs several quality-control measures. We found that the use by mass of chemicals designated as trade secrets has increased over the study time period, from 728 million pounds in 2014 to 2.96 billion pounds in 2022 (or a 43.7% average yearly increase). A total of 10.4 billion pounds of chemicals were withheld as trade secrets in this time period. The water volume used (and therefore total mass of fracturing fluid) per fracturing job has shown a large increase from 2014 to 2022, which partly explains the increase in mass of chemicals withheld as trade secrets over this time period, even as total fracturing jobs and individual counts of proprietary records have decreased. Our analysis also shows increasing rates of claiming proppants (which can include small grains of sand, ceramic, or other mineral substances used to prop open fractures) as proprietary. However, the mean and median masses of non-proppant constituents designated as trade secrets have also increased over the study period. We also find that the total proportion of all disclosures including proprietary designations has increased by 1.1% per year, from 79.3% in 2014 to 87.5% in 2022. In addition, most disclosures designate more than one chemical record as proprietary: trade secret withholding is most likely to apply to 10-25% of all records in an individual disclosure. We also show the top ten reported purposes that most commonly include proprietary designations, after removing vague or multiple entries, the first three of which are corrosion inhibitors, friction reducers, and surfactants. Finally, we report the top ten operators and suppliers using and supplying proprietary chemicals, ranked by mass used or supplied, over our study period. These results suggest the importance of revisiting the role of proprietary designations within state and federal disclosure mechanisms.

Outcomes of the Halliburton Loophole: Chemicals regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act in US fracking disclosures, 2014-2021.

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has enabled the United States to lead the world in gas and oil production over the past decade; 17.6 million Americans now live within a mile of an oil or gas well (Czolowski et al., 2017). This major expansion in fossil fuel production is possible in part due to the 2005 Energy Policy Act and its "Halliburton Loophole," which exempts fracking activity from regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA). To begin quantifying the environmental and economic impacts of this loophole, this study undertakes an aggregate analysis of chemicals that would otherwise be regulated by SDWA within FracFocus, an industry-sponsored fracking disclosure database. This paper quantifies the total disclosures and total mass of these chemicals used between 2014 and 2021, examines trends in their use, and investigates which companies most use and supply them. We find that 28 SDWA-regulated chemicals are reported in FracFocus, and 62-73% of all disclosures (depending on year) report at least one SDWA-regulated chemical. Of these, 19,700 disclosures report using SDWA-regulated chemicals in masses that exceed their reportable quantities as defined under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Finally, while the most common direct-supplier category is "company name not reported," Halliburton is the second-most named direct supplier of SWDA regulated chemicals. Halliburton is also the supplier most frequently associated with fracks that use SDWA regulated chemicals. These results show the necessity of a more robust and federally mandated disclosure system and suggest the importance of revisiting exemptions such as the Halliburton Loophole.

Accidente cerebrovascular isquémico en un adulto joven

RESUMEN Presentamos caso de un varón de 39 años con antecedentes de varios accidentes isquémicos transitorios que siempre resolvieron rápida y espontáneamente. Fue sometido a varios estudios cardiovasculares, neurovasculares y de neuro y angioimagen que resultaron normales. El paciente se presentó a consulta con una paresia facio-braquial derecha y disartria. Sin embargo, el cuadro cedió en el transcurso de horas a pesar de manifestarse una isquemia en los estudios neurovasculares. Por todo lo anterior se decidió estudiar trombofilias presentándose el resultado de una mutación del gen G20210A de la protrombina. Al alta, en tratamiento con anticoagulantes orales, el paciente se presenta asintomático con monitoreo mensual continuo.

ABSTRACT We present the case of a 39-year-old man with a history of several transient ischemic attacks that always resolved quickly and spontaneously. He underwent several cardiovascular, neurovascular, and neuro and angioimaging studies that were normal. The patient presented for consultation with a right faciobrachial paresis and dysarthria. However, the condition subsided within hours despite ischemia manifested in neurovascular studies. For all the above, it was decided to study thrombophilias, finding the prothrombin G20210A mutation. Upon discharge, on treatment with oral anticoagulants, the patient is asymptomatic with continuous monthly monitoring.

Photopaper as a Tool for Community-Level Monitoring of Industrially Produced Hydrogen Sulfide and Corrosion.

Scientific instrumentation driven by academic, military, and industrial applications tends to be high cost, designed for expert use, and "black boxed". Community-led citizen science (CLCS) is creating different research instruments with different measurement goals and processes. This paper identifies four design attributes for CLCS tools: affordability, accessibility, builds community efficacy and provides actionable data through validating a community method for monitoring the neurotoxic and corrosive gas Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). For $1 per sample, the semi-quantitative method provides an affordable and easily interpretable data for communities to compare H2S concentrations and silver corrosion in their home environments to those in a major municipal sewage treatment plant. H2S is a leading cause of workplace injury in the U.S. and commonly found in oil and gas production, sewage treatment plants, and concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Communities neighboring such sources tend to be socio-economically marginalized with little access to scientific or political resources. Consequently, health risks and material degradation from corrosion are well studied in workplaces while community exposures are under-studied. Existing commercial H2S detection methods are prohibitively expensive for low-income communities and often require the support of professional scientists. This paper describes a simple and inexpensive semi-quantitative H2S measurement method that uses photopaper. Photopaper passively measures H2S as its silver halide layer linearly reacts with H2S between concentrations of 60 ppb to 1 ppm, discoloring the paper from white to brown. We develop a colorimetric scale for this discoloration for visual estimation of H2S concentration and overall corrosion. The scale is based on comparing silver sulfide (Ag2S) measured by Purafil Corrosion Classification Coupons (CCCs) and H2S concentrations measured with the industry standard tool a Jerome Meter to silver and sulfur bound to the photopaper as measured with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF). We conduct our validation studies in a major municipal sewage treatment plant to provide real-world occupational benchmarks for comparison to community results. This community science method is affordable, accessible, designed to build collective efficacy and to create actionable data to flag the need for follow-up research.

When Data Justice and Environmental Justice Meet: Formulating a Response to Extractive Logic through Environmental Data Justice.

Environmental data justice (EDJ) emerges from conversations between data justice and environmental justice while identifying the limits and tensions of these lenses. Through a reflexive process of querying our entanglement in non-innocent relations, this paper develops and engages EDJ by examining how it informs the work of the Environmental Data & Governance Initiative (EDGI), a distributed, consensus-based organization that formed in response to the 2016 US presidential election. Through grassroots archiving of data sets, monitoring federal environmental and energy agency websites, and writing rapid-response reports about how federal agencies are being undermined, EDGI mobilises EDJ to challenge the 'extractive logic' of current federal environmental policy and data infrastructures. 'Extractive logic' disconnects data from provenance, privileges the matrix of domination, and whitewashes data to generate uncertainty. We use the dynamic EDJ framework to reflect on EDGI's public comment advising against the US Environmental Protection Agency's proposed rule for Transparent Science. Through EDJ, EDGI aspires to create new environmental data infrastructures and practices that are participatory and embody equitable, transparent data care.

Nivel de conocimiento sobre autocuidado al momento del alta de los pacientes intervenidos quirurgicamente en el Hospital J.R.Vidal. Año 2017 / Level of knowledge about self-care at the time of discharge of patients surgically intervened at the J.R. Vidal Hospital in 2017

Todo paciente sometido a intervención quirurgica requiere un tratamiento postquirurgico integral, atendiendo a sus necesidades para favorecer el adecuado cuidado y cicatrizacion de las heridas. El cuidado es un factor determinante de su evolucion y de la aparicion de complicaciones. Por eso se busco describir el nivel de conocimiento de pacientes intervenidos quirurgicamente al momento del alta hospitalaria. El estudio fue cuantitativo, descriptivo, prospectivo, transversal y observacional. La muestra fue probabilistica por conveniencia. Se estudiaron las variables nivel de conocimiento en curacion de heridas quirurgicas, signos y sintomas de alarma, administracion de medicamentos y alimentación. El instrumento de recolección de datos fue una encuesta de respuestas multiples a rellenar por cada paciente. Se entrevistaron 40 pacientes intervenidos quirurgicamente al momento del alta hospitalaria. Los resultados mostraron que el 60% tenia conocimientos suficientes sobre curación de herida quirurgica, mientras que el 27% esto era regular y en 13% insuficiente. en lo referido a signos de alarma y administración de medicamentos indicados, el 98% evidenció conocimientos suficientes, solo 8% mostro conocimientos regulares. En cuanto a la alimentacion en el hogar, el 98% de los pacientes tenía conocimientos suficientes y solo en el 2% esto fue regular. Si bien en general se observaron conocimientos suficientes en los pacientes antes del alta, es necesario profundizar su capacitación en cuanto a las soluciones mas adecuadas para la curacion de heridas asi como las tecnicas de curacion y la toma de analgesicos luego de los alimentos...

Estilos de vida y riesgo cardiovascular y cardiometabólico en profesionales de salud del Hospital Regional de Encarnación

RESUMEN Introducción: el estilo de vida es el conjunto de comportamientos que practica habitualmente una persona en forma consciente y voluntaria durante el transcurso de su vida. La evaluación de los factores de riesgo cardiovascular y cardiometabólico permite tomar medidas preventivas en beneficio de la salud. Objetivo: determinar el estilo de vida y su relación con el riesgo cardiovascular y cardiometabólico de profesionales de la salud del Hospital Regional de Encarnación, Paraguay. Metodología: estudio observacional, prospectivo, descriptivo de tipo transversal, con componente analítico. El estilo de vida se identificó a través un cuestionario, el riesgo cardiovascular mediante la calculadora ASCVD Risk Estimator y el riesgo cardiometabólico según la circunferencia de cintura. Se valoró el estado de nutricional a través de medidas antropométricas y el porcentaje de grasa corporal por análisis de impedancia bioeléctrica. Resultados: el 79% de los profesionales de salud presentaron un estilo de vida poco y no saludable. Se encontró alto riesgo cardiometabólico (78%) y bajo riesgo cardiovascular a los 10 años (91%). El riesgo cardiovascular para toda la vida hallado fue 36±9%. Conclusión: se encontró una asociación negativa, estadísticamente significativa, entre el estilo de vida y el riesgo cardiovascular-cardiometabólico.

ABSTRACT Introduction: Lifestyle is the set of behaviors that a person habitually practices consciously and voluntarily during the course of his life. The evaluation of cardiovascular and cardiometabolic risk factors allows to take preventive measures for the benefit of health. Objective: To determine the lifestyle and its relationship with the cardiovascular and cardiometabolic risk of health professionals of the Hospital Regional of Encarnación, Paraguay. Methodology: Observational, prospective, descriptive study of transversal type, with analytical component. Lifestyle was identified through a questionnaire, cardiovascular risk using the ASCVD Risk Estimator calculator and cardiometabolic risk according to waist circumference. The nutritional status was assessed through anthropometric measurements and the percentage of body fat by bioelectrical impedance analysis. Results: Seventy nine percent of the health professionals presented a little unhealthy and unhealthy lifestyle. High cardiometabolic risk (78%) and low cardiovascular risk were found at 10 years (91%). The lifetime cardiovascular risk found was 36±9%. Conclusion: A negative, statistically significant association was found between lifestyle and cardiovascular-cardiometabolic risk.

DATA RESISTANCE: A SOCIAL MOVEMENT ORGANIZATIONAL AUTOETHNOGRAPHY OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL DATA AND GOVERNANCE INITIATIVE.

The dismantlement of evidence-based environmental governance by the Trump Administration requires new forms of activism that uphold science and environmental regulatory agencies while critiquing the politics of knowledge production. The Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI) emerged after the November 2016 U.S. Presidential elections, becoming an organization of over 175 volunteer researchers, technologists, archivists, and activists innovating more just forms of government accountability and environmental regulation. Our successes include: 1) leading a public movement to archive vulnerable federal data evidencing climate change and environmental injustice; 2) conducting multi-sited interviews of current and former federal agency personnel regarding the transition into the Trump administration; 3) tracking changes to federal websites. In this article, we conduct a "social movement organizational autoethnography" on the field of movements intersecting within EDGI and on our theory, tactics, and practices. We offer ideas for expanding and iterating on methods of public, collaborative scholarship and advocacy.

Materializing Exposure: Developing an Indexical Method to Visualize Health Hazards Related to Fossil Fuel Extraction.

How can STS researchers collaborate with communities to design environmental monitoring devices that more effectively express their experiences and address gaps in regulation? This paper describes and shows the results of a novel method of visualizing environmental emissions of corrosive gases such as hydrogen sulfide (H2S) exposure using photographic paper. H2S is a neurotoxic and flammable gas that smells like rotten eggs and is frequently associated with oil and natural gas extraction. Communities living with oil and gas development in Wyoming report odors of rotten eggs and describe symptoms of H2S exposure. H2S is recognized as an acute and chronic threat to human and environmental health and oil and gas companies are required to have plans in place to prevent and respond to accidental, high concentration releases of H2S. They are not, however, required to monitor, report or prevent routine daily emissions. Yet 15-25% of the oil and gas wells in the US are predicted to contain H2S, and some communities surrounded by multiple wells report chronic, routine exposure. Chronic exposure is difficult to represent with current tools for monitoring H2S because they are designed to measure acute workplace exposure. Informed by STS theories of black boxes and regimes of imperceptibility that focus on the need to revise not only regulations but also material tools of science, this paper describes the development of an indexical approach to visualizing this hazard. In indexical design, the reactive sensing element of a scientific instrument is brought to the foreground. The silver in the photopaper is an index as it tarnishes with H2S exposure. Discolored tests strips can be arranged together to form data-rich maps of the exposure landscape where this discoloration both represents how the gas spreads through a space and is a physical trace of the gas. Preliminary results in the form of data-rich maps show that regulating H2S emissions as primarily accidental is inappropriate and fails to adequately protect human health.

Community Health Impacts from Oil and Gas Development in Texas: The Perspective of Sharon Wilson.

Sharon Wilson is a community organizer for the nonprofit organization Earthworks. After leaving her office job managing data for the oil and gas industry, she started organizing in response to negative impacts from unconventional oil and gas extraction methods near her Texas home and throughout the state. She describes the environmental health impacts of oil and gas development aided by new technologies and regulatory exemptions set forth by the 2005 Energy Policy Act. Production has spread to previously unexplored regions over the last decade, including her property on the Barnett Shale in North Texas, where she has interacted with energy corporations and observed the intensification of residents' health issues. I structured the questions in this interview to highlight her unique perspective on organizing in relation to current regulatory loopholes, health impacts of oil and gas development, and the experiences individuals have had with representatives from the industry.

Fundamentación sociológica del proceso de hibridación alimentaria en adolescentes / Sociological bases of the process of alimentary hybridization in adolescents

En este trabajo se fundamentan los factores de riesgos asociados al sobrepeso en adolescentes, con énfasis en el proceso de hibridación alimentaria. Asimismo, se analiza y se reflexiona sobre la relación existente entre salud y sociedad; factores determinantes de la salud en la sociedad. Se definen diferentes criterios asumidos por sociólogos y profesionales sanitarios, que favorecen la apropiación de una lógica en el pensamiento científico, contribuyendo a una clasificación de las prácticas alimentarias que caracterizan los procesos de hibridación en adolescentes ecuatorianos, a partir de los postulados de la sociología de la salud(AU)

In this work, the risk factors associated with overweight in adolescents are supported, with emphasis in the process of alimentary hybridization. Also, it is analyzed and it is meditated on the existent relationship between health and society; decisive factors of the health in the society. Different approaches assumed by sociologists and sanitary professionals that favour the appropriation of a logic in the scientific thought, are defined, contributing to a classification of the alimentary practices which characterize the hybridization processes in Ecuadorian adolescents, starting from the postulates of the health sociology(AU)

Fundamentación del modelo de gestión intercultural ecuatoriana en la atención primaria de salud / Bases of the pattern of Ecuatorian intercultural management in the primary health care

En esta investigación se fundamenta, desde el punto de vista epistemológico, el proceso de atención primaria en el sistema de salud pública en Ecuador, específicamente en la provincia del Guayas, con énfasis en el proceso de terapias tradicionales y alternativas en la atención sanitaria, relacionado con el sistema biomédico oficial de salud integral, con enfoque holístico, familiar, comunitario e intercultural, basado en el respeto a las particularidades y peculiaridades étnicas. Se definen diferentes criterios y enfoques asumidos por los profesionales de la salud, que favorecen la apropiación de una lógica en el pensamiento científico, lo cual contribuye al equilibrio psiconeuroinmunoendocrinológico, que alcanza el ally kawsay o buen vivir de la población ecuatoriana(AU)

In this investigation, the process of primary care in the public health system of Ecuador is consolidated, from the epistemological point of view, specifically in the province of Guayas, with emphasis in the process of traditional and alternative therapies in the health care, related to the official biomedical system of comprehensive health, with holistic, family, community and interculture approach, based on the respect to the ethnic particularities and peculiarities. Different approaches and criteria assumed by the health professionals are defined, which favor the appropriation of a logic in the scientific thought, that contributes to the psychoneuroinmunoendocrinological balance that reaches the ally kawsay or good living of the Ecuatorian population(AU)