Radioactivity and Toxicity in NYC's Gas Distribution System
Scientists, policy experts, and community leaders spoke to the press on Thursday morning about specific work happening in New York State to halt the expansion of toxic gas facilities.
MEDIA CONTACTS:
Priscilla Grim, Communications Director, Sane Energy Project, priscilla@saneenergyproject.org 347-682-9783
Chris Dobens, Director of Communications, We Act for Environmental Justice, chris@weact.org, 212-410-1963
New York, NY— Following the recently published book Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It by Justin Nobel, scientists, policy experts, and community leaders spoke to the press on Thursday morning about specific work happening in New York State to halt the expansion of toxic gas facilities.
In a concerning turn of events, New York State's recently passed budget signals a retreat from the state's commitment to climate leadership and environmental justice. The budget fails to include the crucial NY HEAT Act, and Governor Hochul's administration has scrapped significant offshore wind projects, bowing to the influence of fossil fuel lobbyists and lawyers. This shift in priorities undermines efforts to protect vulnerable communities and address climate change, setting a dangerous precedent for the state's energy and economic policies.
The book Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It began as an investigation with Rolling Stone magazine that examined the radioactivity brought to the surface in oil and gas production and the various pathways of contamination posed to the industry’s workers, the public and communities, and the environment. The magazine story was published in January 2020 as “America’s Radioactive Secret” and won an award for longform writing with the National Association of Science Writers.
Unknown to most people, significant amounts of radioactivity are brought to the surface in oil and gas development. The dangerous radioactive gas radon travels with natural gas through America’s natural gas pipeline and distribution system. Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer deaths in the US, killing more people each year than anything but smoking.
About the book, Petroleum-238
An acclaimed science journalist’s extraordinary seven-year investigation into how the U.S. oil and gas industry has avoided environmental regulations and created a dangerous and radioactive public health crisis.
Photo Credit: Filmmaker Quintin Schomaker
“In July 2012, a Canada-based firm called Risk Sciences International published a report: “An Assessment of the Lung Cancer Risk Associated with the Presence of Radon in Natural Gas Used for Cooking in Homes in New York State.” Risk Sciences, using Spectra’s own data, confirmed radon levels in the pipeline as it approached New York City were more than four times EPA’s recommended home radon remediation level. Although levels would dissipate as the gas traveled through the city then into buildings and out a stove, the report revealed that were New Yorkers to live their lives in an 800-square-foot apartment with 8-foot ceilings, reasonable ventilation, and a gas range with the stovetop used for two hours a day, the oven used for one, and four stovetop pilot lights that remain on, radon could cause about 2 lung cancers for every 100,000 people. New York City’s population is approximately 8.344 million people. Were every single one of them to use gas stoves for their entire life, about 167 New Yorkers would get lung cancer from the radon. Under a scenario with increased gas use and a smaller apartment, as many as 747 lung cancers from radon could be expected.
This all may seem like low odds, but the risk is high enough that in even the general scenario, under current California laws Marcellus gas would need to be labeled as a cancer-causing product. Lung cancer often kills, and so it seems like New Yorkers have a right to know that a lifetime of using Marcellus gas is expected to kill some number of them, and that number is not zero. But apparently no one has ever told them. And Con Edison, along with National Grid, New York City’s other main natural gas utility company, and the New York State Public Service Commission, which regulates natural gas in the state, have not answered my questions on the topic. Petroleum-238 conveys that key decisions which led to the Spectra pipeline entering NYC were made by Mayor Mike Bloomberg and his longtime romantic partner Diana Taylor.”
- Justin Nobel, Award-Winning Rolling Stone Science Journalist and author of new book, “Petroleum-238: Big Oil's Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It” (Karret Press, April 24 2024)
As Justin Nobel traveled the United States reporting on the oil and gas industry, he learned a disturbing and little-considered fact: much more comes to the surface at a well than just the oil and gas. Each year, the industry produces billions of tons of waste, much of which is toxic and radioactive. The fracking boom has only worsened the problem. So where does it all go? Petroleum-238 provides the shocking answer. Shielded by a system of lax regulations and legal loopholes, this waste has been spilled, spread, injected, dumped, and freely emitted across America.
Photo Credit: Filmmaker Quintin Schomaker
"Fracked gas already has a long and disturbing rap sheet," said Annie Carforo, Climate Justice Campaigns Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. "Further evidence makes clear that from start to finish, the gas distribution system is contaminating and harming our communities, and the gas industry is lying about its impact. How much more evidence will it take for our elected leaders to transition off of fossil fuels in the name of our communities' safety and health?" Annie Carfuro, Climate Justice Campaigns Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice
Nobel relies on oilfield workers, community activists, a century of academic research, and a trove of never-before-released industry and government documents to reveal the world’s most powerful industry in a series of game-changing revelations.
Photo Credit: Filmmaker Quintin Schomaker
“So, in Ohio and the Marcellus Shale, we sell dirty oil. We are selling dirty gas, and now we're looking to pollute New York with this. And I figured I'd better come up here today, let 'em know that the stuff you were getting, it's already toxic. They are poisoning many people in Ohio and West Virginia and now they want to come up here to New York and let you guys have some of this dirty stuff, too. It's got to stop somewhere. The greed that is driving this is sick. The things that I've seen, I can't even speak up today. I don't want to face any type of litigation, but there are stories that need to be told, and this needs to stop. Don't know where else to go with it. As I said, I didn't have much of a plan, but if anybody needs any information on it, please feel free to contact me.” Jesse Lombardi, former oil and gas industry worker
Photo Credit: Filmmaker Quintin Schomaker
“Public health scientists have revealed the link between radon and lung cancer, and geologists have shown us how much radon is trapped along with methane in the rocks of the Marcellus Shale targeted for fracking. But it takes a brilliant investigative reporter to unearth the hidden industry documents that reveal the threat that this radon poses to users of gas stoves in the kitchens of New York City and to the workers who haul the radioactive fracking waste away.” —Sandra Steingraber, PhD, Senior Scientist at the Science & Environmental Health Network
None have been more deceived than the industry’s own workers, who are suffering mysterious health maladies and dying from unexplainable cancers. This book is an impressive work of investigative science journalism with surprising moments of literary beauty and a welcome breakdown of the false wall corporations and politicians often set between industry workers and environmentalists. In the tradition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Petroleum-238 is a landmark work of environmental writing and an urgent call to action.
Photo Credit: Filmmaker Quintin Schomaker
“The publication of Petroleum-238 this week is both timely and poignant, as we witness the New York State Governor and Assembly's appalling inaction on the critical climate legislation, the NY HEAT Act, due to fossil fuel industry disinformation and donations to strategic legislators to prevent climate progress. Our connection with Justin Nobel dates back to 2011 when our shared concern over radon in gas brought us together in the fight against the Spectra pipeline, the first high-pressure fracked gas pipeline brought into NYC from the Marcellus shale fracking boom. At this time, Sane Energy organized against former Mayor Bloomberg's insistence that the city convert all boilers from oil to gas rather than renewables to fill his billionaire pockets. Now, we see how the last decade of the gas industry has destroyed people's lives, and harmed our labor force. More than ever, it is crucial to move everyone off a toxic energy system by bolstering Energy Efficiency and Thermal Energy Networks.” -Kim Fraczek, Director of Sane Energy Project
Justin Nobel writes on science and the environment for US magazines, investigative sites, and literary journals. His work has been published in Best American Science and Nature Writing. His 2020 Rolling Stone magazine story, “America’s Radioactive Secret,” won an award for longform writing with the National Association of Science Writers and inspired the book Petroleum-238: Big Oil’s Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It. Justin’s writing has helped lead to lawsuits, academic research, and public dialogue and has been taught at Harvard School of Public Health.
Annie Carforo is the Climate Justice Campaigns Manager at WE ACT for Environmental Justice. Annie led Out of Gas, In with Justice, the first pilot study in the United States to monitor indoor air quality in homes transitioning from gas stoves to electric induction stoves with residents in-place in affordable housing that found significant reductions in indoor air pollution when transitioning from gas to induction stoves.
Dr. Sandra Steingraber is the Senior Scientist at the Science & Environmental Health Network, and the co-founder of Concerned Health Professionals of New York who authored the 9th edition Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure, a fully referenced compilation of evidence, spanning many scientific and social scientific fields, documenting continuing and increasing impacts on health and environment.
Jesse Lombardi is a Whistle-Blowing Oilfield Worker. An excerpt from the book featuring Jesse Lombardi was just published this week with Rolling Stone: “A Reformed Fracker Exposes the Fossil Fuel Industry’s Toxic Lies: An excerpt from ‘Petroleum-238: Big Oil's Dangerous Secret and the Grassroots Fight to Stop It’” tells the story of a bank robber-turned-fracker who became a whistleblower.
Kim Fraczek is the Director of the Sane Energy Project, spearheading several successful campaigns in New York against toxic gas projects proposed by some of the world's largest energy corporations. Most notably, in 2023, Sane Energy achieved a significant victory by halting the construction of the North Brooklyn pipeline, which would have impacted several socioeconomically disadvantaged frontline communities. Under Kim's leadership, Sane Energy is now at the forefront of developing Thermal Energy Networks in New York.