Groups seek funding for drilling health impact studies by Kevin Begos, September 1, 2012, The Associated Press
Geisinger Health Systems of Danville and Guthrie Health of Sayre are in the planning stages of examining how people might be affected by gas drilling activity. Geisinger spokeswoman Marcy Marshall said the company has received $100,000 from a local charitable organization and is seeking other grants. The initial funding will pay for the planning stage and some pilot studies, she said. … Until a few months ago, Pennsylvania public health officials had expected to get a share of the revenue being generated by the state’s new Marcellus Shale law, which is projected to provide about $180 million to state and local governments in the first year. But representatives from Republican Gov. Tom Corbett’s office and the state Senate cut the health appropriation to zero during final negotiations, so now the state Department of Health is left with a new workload but no funding to examine whether gas drilling impacts health. A Congressional committee in June also turned down an Obama administration request to fund $4.25 million in research on how drilling may affect water quality. Bernard Goldstein, professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, was at an academic conference in Canada on shale gas drilling this week. “All I’ve heard here confirms the relative lack of available U.S. funding for the needed health research,” [Emphasis added]
[Refer also to Expert Panel to Understand the Environmental Impacts of Shale Gas Extraction by Council of Canadian Academies
John Cherry Chair, Associate Director G360 Centre Applied GW Research, Adjunct Prof School of Eng, U of Guelph
Michael Ben-Eli, Founder & Director of the Sustainability Laboratory, New York
Lalita Bharadwaj, Associate Prof, Toxicologist, School of Public Health, U of Saskatchewan
Rick Chalaturnyk, Prof of Geotechnical Engineering, Dept of Civil and Environmental Engineering, U of Alberta
Maurice B. Dusseault, PT Prof of Engineering Geology, Dept of Earth and Environmental Sciences, U of Waterloo
Bernard Goldstein, Prof Environmental and Public Health, Graduate School of Public Health, U of Pittsburgh
Jean-Paul Lacoursière, Associate Prof, Chemical Engineering Dept, U of Sherbrooke
Ralph Matthews, Prof Dept Sociology U BC; Prof Emeritus of Sociology, McMaster U
Bernhard Mayer, Prof of Isotope Geochemistry, Dept of Geoscience, U of Calgary
Jennifer Miskimins, Associate Prof, Petroleum Eng Dept, Colorado School of Mines
John Molson, Canada Research Chair in Quantitative Hydrogeology of Fractured Porous Media, Dept of Geology and Geological Engineering, Laval U
Kelly Munkittrick, Sc Director, Canadian Water Network, Prof, Dept of Bio, U of NB
Naomi Oreskes, Prof History and Science Studies, Dept of History, U of California
Beth Parker, Director, G360 Centre Applied Groundwater Research, U of Guelph
Paul Young, FRSC, VP (Research) & Prof Geophysics, U of Toronto
Mark D. Zoback, Prof Geophysics, Stanford U ]