WellExplorer

WellExplorer maps hydraulic fracturing chemical ingredients to testosterone and estrogen pathway modulation and to well geographic locations to enable exposure assessment, including potential drinking-water contamination.

Key Features:

• Site-level chemical inventories: Provides chemical ingredient data for individual well sites, including chemicals identified as hormonal modulators.
• Hormonal pathway analysis: Identifies and categorizes chemicals that modulate testosterone and estrogen pathways to indicate potential endocrine-disrupting effects.
• Geographic mapping and proximity search: Links wells to geographic identifiers such as town and ZIP code to enable proximity-based exposure evaluation.
• Regional chemical usage patterns: Reports regional disparities in pathway-targeting chemical usage, noting higher estrogen-targeting chemical use in Alabama and higher testosterone-targeting chemical use in Illinois, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.

Scientific Applications:

• Epidemiological research: Supports investigation of associations between exposure to specific fracturing chemicals and population health outcomes, facilitating studies of endocrine disruption.
• Public health awareness and assessment: Enables community-level evaluation of environmental health risks related to hydraulic fracturing chemical exposures, including potential impacts on drinking water.

Methodology:

Integration of data on chemical ingredients used in hydraulic fracturing across geographic locations and systematic categorization of those chemicals by their potential to modulate hormonal (testosterone and estrogen) pathways.