A lightweight splint used for immobilizing fractured or injured extremities. It is usually an inflatable cylinder, open at both ends, that becomes rigid when inflated, thus preventing the part confined in the cylinder from moving. Synonym: blow-up splint; inflatable splint.
In fact, a growing body of data indicates that fracking is an environmental and public health disaster in the making. However, the true toll of fracking does not end there. Frackingâs negative impacts on our environment and health come with heavy âdollars and centsâ costs as well.
Whether fracking can continue spreading without major harm to the environment or public health, and whether it promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, are questions researchers are still working to answer. Fracking is a process for extracting natural gas from shale layers typically thousands of feet deep. These targeted shales arenât especially permeable, meaning most of the gas is trapped. So drillers blast the rock layers with highly pressurized water containing chemicals that reduce friction between water and rock.