Medical and public health groups urge EPA to adopt strongest standards for oil and gas industry

Dear Fracking Insurgents,

You will want to print out THESE COMMENTS and read every word.

From:
American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Amercan Thoracic Society, Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America and Trust for America’s Health

Re: Oil and Natural Gas Sector: Reviews of New Source Performance Standards and National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants. Docket ID No. EPA-HQ-OAR-2010-0505

On behalf of our nation’s medical and public health groups, we urge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt the strongest possible standards to reduce harmful emissions from the production wells, processing plants, transmission pipelines, and storage units within the oil and natural gas industry. As public health groups and medical societies, we are keenly aware of the harmful health effects of these air pollutants. Research has shown that these pollutants can harm the circulatory, respiratory, nervous, and other essential and vital life systems. These emissions can even cause cancer, developmental disorders, and premature death. The cleanup of air pollution from oil and natural gas wells is necessary for the protection of public health, appropriate for the EPA to undertake, and of growing importance. We applaud EPA’s efforts to respond to this growing source of air pollution and appreciate the opportunity to provide
comments.

It’s a little surprising to see that the ALA is included in these comments because they recently sold credibility to Chesapeake. Gas industry, lung association team up

Other comments from medical and public health groups:

The Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Units recently distributed fact sheets for people who live in areas of natural gas development.

Here is a fact sheet for health care professionals on the dangers of exposing children to hydraulic fracturing and natural gas activity.

Here is a fact sheet for parents.

In Denton over 80 doctors signed a petition to the city council citing health concerns and asking them not to permit a drill site near the hospital, a city park and neighborhood.

But no one has voiced the concerns as succinctly as a doctor and father who lives in Southlake, when he stated:

“People think we figured out cigarettes cause cancer because we did a study and said, ‘Oh shit, this causes cancer!’ No, that’s not how we figured it out. Forty years later, when we saw all these people getting lung cancer, that’s when we got the information,” he says. “Do you want to be in the test group or the control group? I want to be in the control group that wasn’t exposed to elevated levels of benzene while gas drilling was going on near my house.

“The reality is it doesn’t make sense to take those risks. We don’t need the gas like that. We don’t need the money like that. I can live without gas, and I can live without gas royalties, but I can’t live without clean air, clean water and my health and my kids’ health.”

Fear and Fracking in Southlake