"Fracking Sand in Oilfields Stirs Up a Serious Health Risk for Workers"

"Health concerns about oil field fracking have been focused on the mixed brew of chemicals injected into wells. But it is another innocuous-sounding substance — sand — that poses a more serious danger to workers.

Government overseers of workplace safety first highlighted the problem three years ago and issued a hazard alert a year later warning that high levels of fine quartz sand around fracking operations could lead to silicosis and other lung illnesses.

But efforts to update the 44-year-old exposure limits on sand dust are dragging on. Engineering solutions to the problem are still being researched. And, while many energy companies are taking steps to lessen the amount of what is referred to as "respirable crystalline silica" by scientists or "frac sand" by oilfield workers, the industry, with support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, is also opposing much in proposed new regulations."

Nancy Lofholm reports for the Denver Post October 12, 2014.