Fracked gas in populated areas increases disease vastly

[Otis B Driftwood]

Adding to my suspicions are these new "laws" that doctors have to comply to.
Seems that after some teeth pulling, industry has published public sites that
allow medical professionals to be privy to some but not all of the chemicals
used in their processes. To get the complete list, a doctor has to sign a con-
fidentiality agreement on the condition they can't share the information with
anyone else - not even the patient. To do so would expose the medic to legal
action. Now, how the frack is a doctor going to be able to help a patient who
has strange symptoms without knowing what might be causing them unless
he has a potential lawsuit hanging over his head? How fair is that? Remember,
this is public safety we're talking about here. Taken from that perspective,
trade secrets matter very little, especially in this post-9/11 world in which
"... we have to be right 100% of the time, whereas they have to be right
just once." It all defies logic. Then again, it's business as usual.

 

[semipro]

Ah good ol' reliable WOOD.

(broken link removed to http://www.samharris.org/blog/item/the-fireplace-delusion)

Sam Harris seems a little pretentious, and wrong on many counts.
No doubt burning wood produces pollution. There's not much that we do that doesn't.
However, I can't imagine a much "greener" way of heating my house than harvesting CO2 and sunlight in my trees and then converting it back again in an efficient wood burner. Especially, when my primary alternative is coal-based electricity.
I also think that if many of us here burned in situations where 70% of the emissions ended up back in our house this forum would die off pretty quickly from attrition.

 

[begreen]

NPR has been running a series of reports on this topic recently. Amazingly enough there has been very little actual testing of the airborne components of communities near major gas fields. And surprise, the gas industry appears to be part of the reason why. Even if a doctor starts seeing questionable symptoms in his patients, he can't get information about what is being used to extract the natural gas in order to come up with a treatment or antidote. Recently this changed, but with a serious caveat. The doctor has to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents he or she from sharing this info, with anyone, perpetually!

In another report they tell how NOAA is finding that clean natural gas is not so clean. Lots of methane heading into the atmosphere from these wells and that really isn't good. This gas boom could have some serious unintended (or unmindful) public and global consequences without more industry responsibility.

http://www.npr.org/series/151930969/science-and-the-fracking-boom-missing-answers

 

[Seasoned Oak]

I( hope they get the fracking to safe sustainable levels as it could lead us out of energy dependence.

 

[btuser]

I( hope they get the fracking to safe sustainable levels as it could lead us out of energy dependence.

There is no "us". We will pay whatever the cost, and will ALWAYS be dependent whether it comes from PA or outer space. Just our nature I guess. My dad raised 3 kids on 12k/year and most people making 100k are just getting by.

I would really like to see PA or NY get together and do what Norway did when they struck oil in the North Sea. It's such a windfall it would be great to see people band together and make something that lasts rather than just grab/take as fast as they can and leave the peel. As long as energy is a a resource-based equation the rich will always be in control of the rest of us. Maybe solar will bail us out, but even then I'll probably be buying it from an Arizona solar baron.

Thank God for wood heat.