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Pennsylvania gag order on docs re: Fracking
what the everloving fluck?
in what world is this OK?
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For Pennsylvania's Doctors, a Gag Order on Fracking Chemicals
By Climate Desk
A new provision could forbid the state's doctors from sharing information with patients exposed to toxic?and proprietary?fracking solutions.
A fracking rig. arimoore/Flickr
Under a new law, doctors in Pennsylvania can access information about chemicals used in natural gas extraction -- but they won't be able to share it with their patients. A provision buried in a law passed last month is drawing scrutiny from the public health and environmental community, who argue that it will "gag" doctors who want to raise concerns related to oil and gas extraction with the people they treat and the general public.
Pennsylvania is at the forefront in the debate over "fracking," the process by which a high-pressure mixture of chemicals, sand, and water are blasted into rock to tap into the gas. Recent discoveries of great reserves in the Marcellus Shale region of the state prompted a rush to development, as have advancements in fracking technologies. But with those changes have come a number of concerns from citizens about potential environmental and health impacts from natural gas drilling.
"People are claiming that animals are dying and people are getting sick in clusters around [drilling wells], but we can't really study it because we can't see what's actually in the product."
There is good reason to be curious about exactly what's in those fluids. A 2010 congressional investigation revealed that Halliburton and other fracking companies had used 32 million gallons of diesel products, which include toxic chemicals like benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene, in the fluids they inject into the ground. Low levels of exposure to those chemicals can trigger acute effects like headaches, dizziness, and drowsiness, while higher levels of exposure can cause cancer.
Pennsylvania law states that companies must disclose the identity and amount of any chemicals used in fracking fluids to any health professional that requests that information in order to diagnosis or treat a patient that may have been exposed to a hazardous chemical. But the provision in the new bill requires those health professionals to sign a confidentiality agreement stating that they will not disclose that information to anyone else -- not even the person they're trying to treat.
"The whole goal of medical community is to protect public health," said David Masur, director of PennEnvironment. He worries that the threat of a lawsuit from a big industry player like Halliburton or ExxonMobil for violating a confidentiality agreement could scare doctors away from research on potential impacts in the state. "If anything, we need more concrete information. This just stifles another way the public could have access to information from experts."
The provision was not in the initial versions of the law debated in the state Senate or House in February; it was added in during conference between the two chambers, said State Senator Daylin Leach (D), which meant that many lawmakers did not even notice that this "broad, very troubling provision" had been added. "The importance of keeping it as a proprietary secret seems minimal when compared to letting the public know what chemicals they and their children are being exposed to," Leach told Mother Jones.
The limits on what doctors can say about those chemicals makes it impossible to either assuage or affirm the public's concerns about health impacts. "People are claiming that animals are dying and people are getting sick in clusters around [drilling wells], but we can't really study it because we can't see what's actually in the product," said Leach.
At the federal level, natural gas developers have long been allowed to keep the mixture of chemicals they use in fracking fluid a secret from the general public, protecting it as "proprietary information." The industry is exempt from the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory -- the program that ensures that communities are given information about what companies are releasing. In 2005 the industry successfully lobbied for an exemption from EPA regulation under the Safe Drinking Water Act as well, in what is often referred to as the "Halliburton Loophole." The Obama EPA has pressed drillers to voluntarily provide more information about fracking fluids, but the industry has largely rebuffed those appeals.
The latest move in Pennsylvania has raised suspicions among the industry's critics once again. As Walter Tsou, president of the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, put it, "What is the big secret here that they're unwilling to tell people, unless they know that if people found out what's really in these chemicals, they would be outraged?"
I am the 99%.
Re: Pennsylvania gag order on docs re: Fracking
And people wonder why others are so paranoid about conspiracy theories? We're supposed to trust a government that thinks it's OK to keep this type of medically-related information from people? And then we're supposed to blindly trust their medical advice?
::orders a new, bigger tinfoil hat::
This drives me crazy. We just moved to western PA, and we are looking into reverse osmosis water filters... but we don't even know if they would work b/c we don't know what we're up against. And paying $1500 for a filter that doesn't work is not very appealing.
Ugh.
Joseph Henry was born at home on March 9, 2009
Nora Mae was born at home on October 30, 2011
I'm good for you, whether you like it or not.
It is the service companies who keep the chemical proprietary, not the natural gas developers. It pisses off the oil/gas companies as well that they can't know the ingredients of the fluids, especially because of environmental and safety concerns for employees. Companies are required to have MSDS (material safety data sheets) for all chemicals on locations to make sure everyone knows what the chemicals are, the precautions they need to take, and treatment should something happen. Makes it pretty hard to do that if chemicals are listed as 'proprietary'.
That of course is besides the point. I disagree with any law that allows doctors to withhold information from patients.
I wonder how the executives of these companies would like it if I forced chemicals and sand into the areas of their bodies that release gas?
I'm good for you, whether you like it or not.
Let me know if you find a site that offers bulk discounts and I'll go in with you so we can keep a supply on hand for our H's and families.
This legislation =
.
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But if the MSDS has to show the toxicity, indications, and precautions, what's the point of knowing the chemicals? On a similar point, if this is standard practice for MSDSs to not list the chemical content by name, then why would it be required for fracking chemicals?
Generally the MSDS will also show the specific chemicals or interactions with other chemicals as part of the toxicity, indications, and precautions. I don't think it's standard practice to not list the chemical content by name--in fact one of the easiest ways to list all the data about the chemical and create an MSDS is to use the standard chemical database provided by OSHA. The companies I have worked for have required not only the service company to provide an MSDS, but for the field to have one created by the O&G company safety group--this requires the service company to provide the information about the chemicals. The companies I have worked for said 'You don't comply, we don't do business with you.'
Again, none of that is really that important if bottom line people in harms way are not provided accurate information either by their company or by their doctor.
Yep I'm lying for the fun of it.
There are definitely some people, some companies, even other industries who do not give a flying fwck about their employees. All five of the O&G companies I have worked for, I have not experienced a disregard for the safety of employees in the least. Safety is crammed down our throats and it is rewarded when an employee stops operations for unsafe practices.
And for the record, oil and gas industry is a multitude of types of companies that fall into 5 categories: service, upstream, midstream, downstream, and retail. I've only worked in the upstream side of the business.
The service companies provide the rig equipment, fracking equipment, chemicals, pipes, etc. And I would agree based on completely personal experiences with others in the industry, they are the slowest types of companies to come around on the safety aspect. I think it's a serious problem that needs to be fixed.
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