From the Better Path Coalition (https://www.betterpathcoalition.org/):
Earlier this summer, the Better Path Coalition worked with other organizations to gather signatures on a letter we delivered to Governor Tom Wolf calling for an investigation into a spike in rare cancers in children in the four counties where shale gas development began in Pennsylvania. We also called for a halt to permitting further shale gas activities until it could be demonstrated that it was not the cause.
Thanks to the amazing response we received, we were able to deliver the letter electronically with more than 100 organizational and 800 individual signers on June 17th. Here’s the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette‘s coverage. Our coalition was already planning a brown bag session for elected officials on new research on health and climate impacts of shale gas development at the Capitol on June 19th, so we decided to hand-deliver the letter to Wolf’s office that day.
The industry immediately balked at the idea of an investigation. The next morning, the editorial board of the Post-Gazette publicly supported our call and told the industry it should too.
That night, as the impacted communities were holding a public meeting to discuss their concerns, we were thrilled to read that Wolf was considering an investigation.
Unfortunately, the next day, just hours after we delivered the letter to Wolf’s staffer, along with copies of new research reports we discussed at our brown bag session, I received a response from Wolf. I’m the one who had submitted the letter on the 17th, so it came to me, but it was a response to every one of you who signed. There would be no investigation. Instead, Wolf and his health secretary, Rachel Levine, determined that the evidence was inconclusive and decided to “research and study the evidence from Pennsylvania” and “monitor the academic literature”.
We need much more than that.
We need to know if rare cancers are turning up in other areas of the state where shale gas development has been active.
We need to know if rare cancer diagnoses have spiked in other age groups.
We need to know what parents of healthy children must do to make sure their kids aren’t cancer patients by the time they’re in their 20s.
So it’s time to ramp up the pressure. We’ve created a petition as a companion to the letter we delivered last month so that we can gather lots more signatures, and not just from Pennsylvanians this time. We’re asking everyone who wants families to receive the answers and action they need to sign it and share it with your friends and neighbors everywhere.
We’ve got a public health crisis on our hands. Help us tell Governor Wolf it’s time he acted like it.
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