Submitted by
Alice on June 23, 2014
WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW CAN HURT YOU
In the heavily fracked Keystone State, the economic interests of
frackers trump the health concerns of residents.
That much is abundantly clear in the wake of an extraordinary
story by StateImpact Pennsylvania, which interviewed two retired
state health department workers. The former workers say they were
ordered to not return the phone calls of residents who complained
that nearby fracking was harming their health. Instead, they were
told to pass messages on to their superiors, who apparently never
returned the calls either. The health workers were also given a list
of fracking-related “buzzwords” to watch out for:
“We were absolutely not allowed to talk to [people who called
with concerns related to fracking],” said Tammi Stuck, who
worked as a community health nurse in Fayette County for nearly
36 years. …
“There was a list of buzzwords we had gotten,” Stuck 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.” …
Stuck said she has spoken to employees working in other state
health centers who received the same list of buzzwords and the
same instructions on how to deal with drilling-related calls.
“People were saying: Where’s the Department of Health on all
this?” Stuck said. “The bottom line was we weren’t allowed to
say anything.”
The office of Gov. Tom Corbett (R) declined to comment on the
former employees’ claims, and a state health spokesperson basically
called them liars.
Amy Mall, a senior policy analyst at the Natural Resources
Defense Council, described the news as “deeply troubling.” From
her blog:
This is one of the most troubling — but unfortunately, not
surprising — examples of how our leaders at the state and
federal levels have been failing to put the health of Americans
over profits for powerful oil and gas interests. And if it was
happening here unreported for so long, how are we to know it’s
not happening in other states?
Our federal leaders have let the American people down as
well. EPA dropped an investigation into drinking water
contamination in Dimock, PA — as well as in Texas and
Wyoming – without sufficient explanation, despite evidence of
lingering fracking-related contamination and health concerns.
Avoiding investigation of health complaints provides enough
cover for frackers to continue claiming there’s “no proof” of
health impacts. This is backwards. It’s the responsibility of
our public officials to act in the public interest—not to
benefit the oil and gas industry’s bottom line.
Speaking of bottom lines, Pennsylvania has collected more than
$600 million in drilling fees during the past three years —
but absolutely none of those funds have made their way to the health
department to help it monitor or investigate fracking’s impacts on
residents.
Something is seriously sick about this situation.
Source(s):
grist.org