During hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” a fluid is pumped under high pressure into a well bore to create fissures in the rock to facilitate the removal of gas. This fracking fluid contains a large number of ingredients, including water, chemical agents, and sand. The manipulation of sand at the well site creates respirable dust [fracking sand dust (FSD)] to which workers are exposed. A series of nine papers was recently published as a special issue in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology to help better understand the physico-chemical characteristics of FSDs and compare the biological effects of FSDs to pure crystalline
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