So now they have some really new dangerous chemicals being pumped into the earth and they don't even have to tell us what they are. What a joke.
Bought and paid-for government looks after it's mates again. Secrecy surrounds dangerous chemicals used in CSG mining. Just as well some of you guys are making money from it, that it makes it OK.
" THE vast majority of the ingredients in a chemical used in coal seam gas drilling operations have been kept secret from the public since its importation into Australia was approved in late 2014. Manufactured in the United States by chemical giant Halliburton, the "Chemical in Duratone HT" was approved ahead of an assessment of its potential health and environmental effects in July last year. But assessment documents show the National Industrial Chemicals Notification and Assessment Scheme gave Halliburton extensive concessions under commercial-in-confidence rules to keep information from being made public. Those exemptions, which protect companies' commercially sensitive information, allowed the chemicals giant to keep secret about 95% of the chemical's ingredients. While the results of human health toxicology and environmental toxicology studies were provided, the actual studies of the chemical's potential effects were also deemed "exempt information". Environmental group National Toxics Network's senior adviser, Dr Mariann Lloyd-Smith, said the information that had been publicly released was "to put it bluntly, bugger all". "Even Halliburton's own documents about this chemical show that certain local environmental regulations do not allow it to be used," she said. "They themselves acknowledge there may be a problem with this chemical, so how dare they (the regulator) give them confidentiality over 95% of its ingredients and then give us a document that tells us virtually nothing?" The company has also produced a more environmentally friendly product that does a similar job as Duratone HT, called Duratone E, but has not applied to import it to Australia. "How come we have a chemical where even the producers know that some environmental regulators say they can't use it, the company has even gone about producing something less harmful, but the government allows them broad confidentiality?" Dr Lloyd-Smith said.
