Inside Fracking’s Hidden Risk: A Truck Driver’s Story

Tom MnKnight spent years working in the oil and gas industry. Now, he has an extremely rare cancer.

After years hauling oilfield waste, Tom McKnight began asking questions about the risks workers face—and why so few of them were ever told.

For years, Tom McKnight worked in the oil and gas industry as a truck driver in eastern Ohio. He hauled produced water, condensate, crude oil, and waste from well sites across the region. He cleaned tanks, vacuumed pits, worked around active drilling operations, and spent countless hours on well pads during the height of the shale boom.

Like many workers, he believed he understood the risks that came with the job.

It wasn't until years later, after a cancer diagnosis and a chance encounter with reporting on oilfield radioactivity, that he began to question how much workers were actually told about the materials they handled every day.

A Job in the Shale Boom

McKnight entered the industry during the rapid expansion of unconventional oil and gas development. What began as a search for work quickly turned into a career that offered steady pay, long hours, and a sense of purpose.

He describes the early years of the shale boom as chaotic but exciting. Workers were needed immediately. Companies hired aggressively. Well pads were active around the clock. For many local residents, the industry represented opportunity.

Tom was one of the workers responsible for hauling fluids from well sites and cleaning up spills, leaks, and accumulated waste. He often worked directly around tanks, wellheads, and flowback operations where large volumes of wastewater were being managed.

He enjoyed the work, he enjoyed being part of a team, solving problems, working outdoors, and contributing to what he viewed as an important part of the nation's energy infrastructure.

But looking back, he believes there were risks that workers did not fully understand.

The Questions That Came Later

During his orientation, McKnight recalls a discussion about radiation. His recollection is that concerns were largely dismissed, and he left believing there was little to worry about.

Years later, after being diagnosed with a rare cancer called thymoma, he encountered reporting on radioactive materials associated with oil and gas waste streams. The reporting

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-gas-fracking-radioactive-investigation-937389/

caused him to revisit experiences from his years in the field and to ask questions he had never previously considered.

McKnight is careful not to claim that his cancer was caused by his work.

Instead, he asks a question that many workers in similar situations have asked:

Were they given enough information to make informed decisions about the risks they were taking?

That question sits at the center of his story.

Life Around Oilfield Waste

Throughout the conversation, McKnight describes routine tasks that placed him in direct contact with produced water and oilfield waste.

He recalls handling hoses, cleaning tanks, vacuuming accumulated sludge, and repeatedly working around materials that he now believes deserved greater scrutiny and stronger safety protocols.

At the time, these tasks were considered normal parts of the job.

Workers wore hard hats, flame-resistant clothing, and gloves. But McKnight says discussions about radioactivity, contamination, or long-term exposure were largely absent from day-to-day operations as he experienced them.

Today, he believes workers should receive more information, more training, and better protective equipment.

Accountability Without Abandonment

One of the most striking aspects of McKnight's story is that he remains supportive of the workers and communities tied to oil and gas development.

He does not argue for simply shutting the industry down.

Instead, he argues that workers deserve honesty about the hazards they face and that companies should be held to standards that reflect the realities of the materials being transported and handled.

Among the changes he would like to see are stronger worker training, clearer transportation requirements, proper identification of waste shipments, and greater recognition of radioactivity as an occupational health issue.

His position reflects a perspective often missing from public debates about energy development: support for workers and support for stronger protections are not mutually exclusive.

Why This Story Matters

The conversation with Tom McKnight highlights a reality that extends far beyond a single worker or a single diagnosis.

Modern energy systems depend on thousands of people who operate trucks, maintain equipment, manage waste streams, and keep industrial infrastructure functioning every day. Yet those workers are often the first people exposed to risks and the last people included in conversations about policy.

McKnight's story is ultimately about information, accountability, and informed consent.

Whether discussing oilfield waste, worker safety, transportation standards, or long-term health monitoring, he believes workers deserve a full understanding of the materials they handle and the risks they may face.

As public conversations about energy continue to evolve, his experience offers a reminder that protecting workers should never be treated as a partisan issue.

It should be a baseline expectation.

"I want the industry. But if we need to do it without killing us." — Tom McKnight

Exposure

Exposure exists to document the lived experiences of people on the front lines of industrial development, environmental change, and public health challenges. Through long-form conversations, we seek to preserve stories that might otherwise go unheard and to create space for nuanced discussions that move beyond simple political talking points.

Listen to the full conversation with Tom McKnight wherever you get your podcasts.

CITATIONS

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America's Radioactive Secret – Justin Nobel, Rolling Stone – 2020https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-gas-fracking-radioactive-investigation-937389/

2.

Review of TENORM in the Oil and Gas Industry (E-42 Task Force Report) – Conference of Radiation Control Program Directors (CRCPD) – 2015https://crcpd.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/E-42_Report_Review_of_TENORM.pdf

3.

Health Hazards Associated with Oil and Gas Extraction Activities – OSHA – Currenthttps://www.osha.gov/oil-and-gas-extraction/health-hazards

4.

Ionizing Radiation: Control and Prevention – OSHA – Currenthttps://www.osha.gov/ionizing-radiation/control-prevention

5.

Worker Rights and Protections – OSHA – Currenthttps://www.osha.gov/workers/

6.

Brine Transporter Registration Requirements – Ohio Department of Natural Resources – Currenthttps://ohiodnr.gov/buy-and-apply/regulatory-permits/oil-and-gas-permits/brine-transporter

7.

Ohio Revised Code §1509.223 – Brine Transporters – Ohio Legislature – Currenthttps://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-revised-code/section-1509.223

8.

Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material (TENORM) – Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3701:1-43 – Currenthttps://codes.ohio.gov/ohio-administrative-code/chapter-3701:1-43

9.

A Hot Fracking Mess: How Weak Regulation of Oil and Gas Production Leads to Radioactive Waste – Natural Resources Defense Council – 2015https://www.nrdc.org/sites/default/files/fracking-mess-regulation-radioactive-waste-report.pdf

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13.

Radioactive Particles in Air Pollution Linked with Worse Survival in Lung Cancer Patients – Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health – 2025https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/radioactive-particles-in-air-pollution-linked-with-worse-survival-in-lung-cancer-patients/

14.

Associations Between Ambient Particle Radioactivity and Lung Function – Environmental Health Perspectives – 2019https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6679995/

15.

Epidemiology of Thymoma and Associated Malignancies – Thoracic Surgery Clinics – 2011https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2951303/

16.

Thymoma – StatPearls / NCBI Bookshelf – 2023https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559291/

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When Occupational Cancer Recognition Falters – Assennato & Giampaulis, Frontiers in Public Health – 2025https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC12120782/

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Occupational Disease: Addressing the Problem of Under-Diagnosis – Michael Lax, New Solutions – 1997https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.2190/NS6.4.n

19.

Summary of Hours-of-Service Regulations – Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration – Currenthttps://www.fmcsa.dot.gov/regulations/hours-service/summary-hours-service-regulations

20.

EPA Investigating Chemical Dumping in the Tuscarawas River Watershed – Ideastream Public Media – 2016https://www.ideastream.org/news/environment-energy/2016-05-04/epa-is-investigating-more-chemical-dumping-in-the-tuscarawas-river-watershed

21.

Bear Run Spill Site Profile – U.S. EPA – 2016https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=11557

22.

Natural Gas County Economies Suffered as Production Boomed – Ohio River Valley Institute – 2021https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/new-report-natural-gas-county-economies-suffered-as-production-boomed/

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Frackalachia: The Natural Gas Boom and Appalachia's Economic Future – Ohio River Valley Institute – 2021https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Frackalachia-Report-update-2_12_01.pdf

24.

Senate Bill 329: Prohibit Oil and Gas Brine Road Spreading – Ohio General Assembly – 2026https://search-prod.lis.state.oh.us/api/v2/general_assembly_136/legislation/sb329/00_IN/pdf/

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