I would like to bring your attention to 2 items in the news this week regarding Natural Gas and YOUR Health.
New York Needs To Be Diligent where Pennsylvania Has Been Careless
Seems Pennsylvania IS the best WORST example of how NOT to drill for gas.
Dr. Brown’s article, New York needs to be diligent where Pennsylvania has been careless, cautions New York NOT to make the same mistakes. Dr. David Brown is a public health toxicologist with. the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project.
I suggest not only New York be made aware of Pennsylvania’s screw-ups, but also include any state which is even remotely thinking about natural gas drilling.
Excerpts: First, take a close look at air. When we began our project, I thought that water would be the exposure pathway of highest concern. While contaminated water certainly poses significant risk, I now believe that air pollution is the more likely pathway of exposures in many cases.
Second, don’t forget about mixtures. Although we are making headway identifying individual agents in water and air near drilling operations, we’ve also learned that people are exposed to mixtures of chemicals.
Third, keep in mind that physicians typically have little experience with toxic exposures in air or water. Everything hangs on public health services. New York needs to consider the costs of a state and local public health infrastructure necessary to protect its rural population.
And remember this: Pennsylvania is not a model for you.
Pennsylvania has no public health assets working on gas drilling in Washington County. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania have conducted very few measurements in air and water, and there is no systematic effort to interpret those findings.
Fourth, there will be accidents, and people will be exposed even with the gas industry’s goals for perfection. From what I’ve seen, accidents are responsible for a disproportionate number of human exposures and injury. Accidents are not trivial events that can be cleaned up or ameliorated.
Related: In the case of Marcellus shale we have a very serious problem
FrackTracker – List of the Harmed
If you have been following news and information about natural gas drilling, you may already be aware of the tremendous project that has been undertaken by Jenny Lisak, co-director of the Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air.
This project is called “List of the Harmed”. It is an ever-growing list of the individuals and families that have been harmed by fracking (or shale gas production) in the US. Updated as of March 9, 2013, it currently 884 entries of individuals and families.
List of the Harmed has recently partnered with FrackTracker. This joint project gives us a visual image of the impact. A click on a red “dot” will provide details of the harmed at that location.
It is one thing to read a list of the harmed, it is another to be able to wrap your mind around the extent of the harm.
Join a fractivist group in your area and work to make sure you and your neighbors won’t be on this list. If there is no group in your area, start one, or someday soon we may be seeing your name on a red dot.
Related:
© 2013 by Dory Hippauf