Medusa

Oilfields Among Most Dangerous Places To Work

<p>In recent years&comma; the oil industry in the United States has seen a sharp resurgence&comma; thanks in large part to the use of fracking&period; This technology&comma; which uses high-pressure fluids to fracture rock and release oil and gas&comma; has dramatically increased US production of these fossil fuels&period; In fact&comma; according to some industry observers&comma; fracking will lead to the United States becoming a net exporter of oil by 2030&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medusamagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;11&sol;oilfields-among-most-dangerous-places-to-work1-600x398&period;jpg" alt&equals;"oilfields-among-most-dangerous-places-to-work1" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"398" class&equals;"aligncenter size-Correct wp-image-9736" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Environmental objections to the use of fracking have been in the news headlines for some time now&comma; but there is another dark side that is less well known&period; Oil fields are among the most dangerous places to work in America&comma; second only to agriculture and related industries such as forestry&period; In fact&comma; the latest preliminary statistical data for 2012&comma; published by the Bureau of Labor Statistics at the United States Department of Labor&comma; show that the fatal injury rate for oil and gas workers is 15&period;6 per 100&comma;000&period; To put this another way – assuming an average career of 40 years –more than 1 in every 200 oilfield workers is going to die while doing their job&period; That’s more than 7 times the rate in manufacturing&comma; and even more than 6 times the rate of utility workers&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Of course&comma; that rate will translate into even higher growth rates when you look at absolute numbers&period; Fracking is dramatically increasing employment in the sector&comma; both at the oilfields and in related transportation activities&period; Because fracking sites are typically remote&comma; the activity results in significant increases in road traffic – both for oil transportation and for removal of contaminated waste water which is produced by the fracking process&period; Sites in Texas&comma; such as the Eagle Ford Shale outside San Antonio&comma; as well as other ones close to Dallas&comma; are booming at the moment&comma; and this is resulting in increased deaths and injuries&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; an oilfield explosion at Karnes City back in October left one man seriously injured&comma; but he can count himself fortunate that things were not much worse&period; According to the sheriff of Karnes County&comma; no less than 10 people have died there since the beginning of the year&period; When you start to multiply this up across the state of Texas&comma; and in other regions where fracking is carried out&comma; the results are highly worrying – there were no less than 147 fatal injuries at US oilfields&comma; mines and quarries in 2012&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;medusamagazine&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;11&sol;oilfields-among-most-dangerous-places-to-work2-600x337&period;jpg" alt&equals;"oilfields-among-most-dangerous-places-to-work2" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"337" class&equals;"aligncenter size-Correct wp-image-9737" &sol;><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Oilfield workers and their families do have legal recourse in the event of serious injury or death&period; Particularly when negligence is involved&comma; they can use Dallas litigation lawyers to bring a personal injury lawsuit in Texas&comma; which can cover medical and other expenses&comma; as well as lost income&comma; pain and suffering&comma; and punitive damages in some cases&period; Under Texas law&comma; families of workers who have been killed can also sue – this includes parents&comma; children and spouses of victims&comma; and damages can include loss of lifetime earnings&comma; especially when the deceased was the family’s primary breadwinner&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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