GASWORK: film about risks to gas workers

Do you know gas workers that have experienced health or safety problems on the job?

Oilfield contractor, Washington County, PA.

“We lost pressure on the frack … Where’s their water at? Oh, my God, where’s it at? It’s blowing up through the woods like Old Faithful, there’s all that frack water pumping over the hill down over through the woods, down in creeks. What did we do? Cover it up a little bit, put the pipes together, start pumping again”. When asked “how many times has this occurred?”, he answered “at least once a month … everybody’s taking turns covering up”.

Truck driver, Altoona, PA.

“There’s guys on there two and three years that never had a safety meeting”.

“You’ll lose all your senses: your smell, your taste, you’ll taste metal on your tongue all the time, then you’ll get this spinning all the time”.

About the number of jobs generated by the gas industry: “Yeah, there’s jobs! Once you get this stuff, you know what your job is? Looking for doctors.”

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on October 6, 2015 at 5:04pm

Barry D: Can you give us a link to the evidence you mention? What I found, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, listed several risk of injury statistics, by occupation, e.g.

1:41  all occupations

1:15  truck driver

1:08  nonconstruction laborer

1:12  construction laborer

This table, at http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfar0020.pdf, says that truck drivers and laborers of various sorts have injury rates several times higher than the average occupation, as you'd expect. Lots of oil and gas workers are truck drivers. Maybe there are newer statistics separated out by industry, e.g. comparing gas workers to laborers carrying packages, doing automobile assembly, etc. Do you know of better stats?

Permalink Reply by paleface on October 6, 2015 at 11:52pm

 Why doesn't the administrator ban Paul Heckbert he is destroying this web sight?

Permalink Reply by MJ on October 7, 2015 at 2:15am

People like Paul and like minded extreme liberals are destroying this country!

Permalink Reply by G.H. on October 7, 2015 at 7:09am

Paul, your link is for data from 1995.  Not at all useful for examining the impact of the modern day fracking boom, which seems to be what you are most interested in.  I found a Bureau of Labor Statistics page with 2014 data from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries, with fatal injuries listed by industry (link below).  2014 is probably a good year to look at, as there was very substantial development activity prior to the commodity downturn late in the year.

Oil and gas is not the highest fatal injury rate on this list, nor is it the lowest.  Somewhere in the middle, I'd say.  I think it is worth noting that many of the jobs created by oil and gas tended to pay better than the same jobs elsewhere (truck driver, road crew members I think are two good examples).  Additionally, most of the workers understand the inherent risk in their occupation, and a lot of them, such as truck drivers, would normally be doing the same job for a different client or different industry if oil and gas were not around.

Clearly, this table does not address non-fatal injuries, which is something else I'm sure you're concerned with, but it's one piece of your puzzle.

Just my two cents.  Please let us know your thoughts.

Take a look at this chart and see what you think: http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb0286.pdf

Permalink Reply by G.H. on October 7, 2015 at 7:54am

Ohhhh, I see, this is a Josh Fox film.  Should have known.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on October 7, 2015 at 11:06am

G.H.

Josh Faux

Permalink Reply by Barry D on October 7, 2015 at 10:54am

I did cite my source BLS.

You of course went to the site and extracted only information you wanted then twisted it to fit your narrative.

You are a fool (with all due respect) "...truck drivers and laborers of various sorts ..."

Does " various sorts " mean only oil and gas related workers? Of course it doesn't. You are a typical; leftist liberal. Twist everything to fit your narrative.

As I have said before, statistics are great things, but they can be misused.

Here is an example:

When the leaves on trees shake there is wind.

Conclusion: The shaking of the leaves causes wind.

Or using your example - truck drivers and various laborers have injury rates higher than the average occupation; therefore all truck drivers and laborers of various sorts work only in the oil and gas industry. Pure folly.

I still can't believe that you are allowed to teach.

Keep pitching the softballs, I like hitting home runs.

Permalink Reply by Janice L. Hancharick on October 7, 2015 at 5:54am

Paul, you must stop smiling in your pic.  Ignorance is not bliss.

Name a handful of occupations where accidents don't happen.  Living a life where no one stubs a toe is not living.  Drive from east coast to the west coast, from FL to Alaska w/o a mishap and you'll have few memories to share.  Eat a lifetime of meals w/o choking even once.

Do you really believe you're presenting an accurate picture of the O&G industry?  I hope readers focus in on Bill Ladd's "take" on your discussion, and those of others.

Permalink Reply by Barry D on October 7, 2015 at 11:08am

Janice,

He is not smiling; he is squinting. It's the result of poor potty training which makes him constipated.

Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on October 7, 2015 at 12:14pm

The Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s report at https://www.osha.gov/SLTC/oilgaswelldrilling/safetyhazards.html says (excerpts):

"Highway vehicle crashes are the leading cause of oil and gas extraction worker fatalities. Roughly 4 of every 10 workers killed on the job in this industry are killed as a result of a highway vehicle incident. Three of every five on-site fatalities in the oil and gas extraction industry are the result of struck-by/caught-in/caught-between hazards."

But the above isn’t telling us how the gas industry compares to other industries, only the cause of fatalities within that industry. Let’s try other sources.

Google might point us to energyindepth.org, but EID was started with money from big oil and gas companies (BP, Halliburton, Chevron, etc): http://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-create...

If I want a fair ballgame, I wouldn’t let the Pirates or Cubs choose the umpire, I’d use an impartial judge; someone without a financial stake in the outcome. Similarly, I wouldn’t let the oil and gas industry be its own judge. So let’s try another source with no financial stake in the game.

In the New York Times article from 2012, “Deadliest Danger Isn’t at the Rig but on the Road”, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/us/for-oil-workers-deadliest-dang..., it says “But the [oil and gas] jobs are also hazardous, with fatality rates that are seven times the national average across all industries. Nearly a third of the 648 deaths of oil field workers from 2003 through 2008 were in highway crashes”.

BTW, you can view the GASWORK video here: http://www.gasworkfilm.com/

Permalink Reply by Barry D on October 7, 2015 at 2:26pm

Paul,

Alot of words, but no substance.

And, again with GasWorks, produced by thoroughly discredited Josh Faux. This alone should inform people of your lack of substance.

Your response still does not refute the latest statistics from the BLS.

Oil and gas workers are safer than employees of many other industries.

Your post is a typical liberal leftist smoke and mirror tactic.

Again; I can't believe they allow you to teach.

Would you accept such sloppy work from your students?

BTW

Most of the sources you site are financed by big money from the left that are anti-oil and gas; such as the Park Foundation.

The problem here is that like most leftists, you never deal with the issues and information presented. Instead you "attack the messenger".

Permalink Reply by G.H. on October 7, 2015 at 4:11pm

So do you suggest all industries that require drivers/transportation somehow find a way to eliminate driving from the industry?  The oil and gas industry is not the only industry that requires people and equipment to be transported to and from distant locations.

And for what it's worth, I don't think the NYT is completely impartial on oil and gas.  Many people in New York State, in New York City especially, seem to have something against the oil and gas industry being in their state, which we can see manifested in the ban on fracking in the state.  It would be naive to believe that no one at the NYT has an agenda to keep this ban in place.  Not saying all of them do, but some do.  It is interesting to me, because none of the NYCers actually live in an area where they would see fracking.  Where do they think the oil and gas products that they use every day come from?  If you haven't noticed, many people on this site DO live in areas where they see it on a (sometimes) daily basis.

I think that most people on this site would agree with you that oil and gas production does involve risks.  Where people on this site don't agree with you is your belief that all oil and gas exploration and production should be stopped.  If it is done correctly, it can be done safely, which has been proven many times over.

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