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Show Spent oil shale is safer than some may think Slule is a tpe nl sedimentary rock lh.it siMiU't nm' cunt. i ins recoverable oil Th.it s tlii gHKl now s lUit shale oil lus also Uvn fouiul to contain potential carcinogens That's ob Mously not god news S.M11C ll.tC WOlldeied ll Spoilt sll.llo. the ni.itcii.il let! after the oil h.is been removed, might also contain carcinogens That wouldn't Ik" good news either. lUit Robert llmohee, a PH IV candidate can-didate in engineering at Utah State University, has recently done a preliminary study show inj; that spent slule may be sater than some thought And that would't tv bad news. Hmchoe recently detailed the outline of this research at meetings of the American Chemical Sviety held in Seattle, Seat-tle, Washington. March 20-2;V I'sing a lest (or detecting mutagens known as the AMES SALMON EDDA microsome test. Hmcluv tested leachate water run though spent shale and then tested extracts made directly from spent shale He found no mutagens in the leachate, hut he did find mutagens in the extract. "Although this is a very preliminary study." said llmcliee, "the results are important localise the significant factor is not whether there are carcinogens in the spent shale, hut whether or not they i"an net out. This experiment suggests there is low leachahilitv of these mutagens ." In nature, llmcliee pointed out, piles of shale are sometimes 50 meters deep. "The next step is to try to devise a model for predicting w hat the movement ol compounds though a column like that would he." said llmcliee. The researcher noted that the answer to that question becomes a significant environmental en-vironmental issue since a ton and a half of spent shale is produced for every barrel! bar-rel! of oil products. Hinehoe holds an undergraduate degree from ISU and a master degree from Louisiana State University. He has been working with V. Dean Adams, of the I'tah Water Research laboratory, on this project |
