newsCOUP Ep. 9: DOH Continues to Dodge Health Impacts from Oil & Gas Radiation, Passes Their Health Study to the University of Pittsburgh
Description
On June 21st, two local health advocacy organizations, Philadelphia Physicians for Social Responsibility (Philly PSR) and Environmental Health Project, were able to meet virtually with Dr. Rachel Levine, Secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH), to advocate on behalf of families regarding a cancer health study in the southwestern part of the state.
In the meeting, Dr. Levine revealed that the academic partner to conduct the infamous oil and gas health study will be the University of Pittsburgh.
Immediately upon hearing this news advocates for affected families requested a “process oversight panel” — but DOH denied the request.
The DOH study, prompted by rare childhood cancers in the county, will take an estimated three years to complete, at which time the DOH will consider whether it will respond and take action. This timeline allows the DOH to fallback on the unfinished study until 2023, as families wait to find out if oil and gas fracking is connected to the increase in childhood cancers.
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