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cali

(114,904 posts)
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 05:57 AM Jun 2014

Pennsylvania health officials ordered to ignore fracking-related health complaints

Live near one of the more than 6,000 fracking wells drilled in Pennsylvania within the last six years? Suffering from skin rashes, nausea or nosebleeds, and worried that nearby drilling is to blame? Don’t bother calling the Department of Health, which apparently isn’t concerning itself with these sorts of things.

Pennsylvania, situated atop the natural gas-rich Marcellus Shale, has been a focal point of the nation’s fracking boom, the potential health impacts of which we know little. And according to a damning report from NPR State Impact, the state has dealt with that lack of information about the health risks of fracking not by studying the health risks of fracking, but by ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away.

According to two former workers with the state Health Department, who are now retired, employees who received phone calls from residents concerned about health risks were ordered to ignore them:

“There was a list of buzzwords we had gotten,” [Tammi Stuck, who retired from the Department of Health two years ago] said. “There were some obvious ones like fracking, gas, soil contamination. There were probably 15 to 20 words and short phrases that were on this list. If anybody from the public called in and that was part of the conversation, we were not allowed to talk to them.”

<snip>

http://www.salon.com/2014/06/23/pa_health_officials_ordered_to_ignore_fracking_related_health_complaints/

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Pennsylvania health officials ordered to ignore fracking-related health complaints (Original Post) cali Jun 2014 OP
What a disgusting SamKnause Jun 2014 #1
It is a disease. And of course it's rampant worldwide. cali Jun 2014 #2
Thank you for writing what I was thinking. myrna minx Jun 2014 #4
This should be on the front page of every PA paper.... PCIntern Jun 2014 #3
This is their reward for electing Corbett governor DFW Jun 2014 #5
It's absolutely disgusting what they are doing to Pennsylvania. femmocrat Jun 2014 #6
We got what we elected. Now Gov.-to-Be Wolf (he WILL be elected) will have to try to fix things. WinkyDink Jun 2014 #8
Honestly... Rod Beauvex Jun 2014 #7

SamKnause

(13,043 posts)
1. What a disgusting
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 06:28 AM
Jun 2014

cesspool of secrecy and corruption the U.S. has become.

Worshipping the almighty dollar at all costs is a disease.

It is destroying this country and many others around the globe.

DFW

(54,057 posts)
5. This is their reward for electing Corbett governor
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 07:51 AM
Jun 2014

He then got to gerrymander a compliant state legislature and House delegation. He and Toomey should be gone soon.

femmocrat

(28,394 posts)
6. It's absolutely disgusting what they are doing to Pennsylvania.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 11:27 AM
Jun 2014
Of the over $630 million the state has raised through its impact fee, which is distributed among agencies involved in regulating drilling, one expert interviewed said that “not one penny” has been allocated to the Department of Health. Gov. Tom Corbett declined to comment.

 

WinkyDink

(51,311 posts)
8. We got what we elected. Now Gov.-to-Be Wolf (he WILL be elected) will have to try to fix things.
Sun Jun 29, 2014, 12:28 PM
Jun 2014
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