CLEVELAND — 371 doctors, nurses, emergency responders, medical technologists, and medical researchers from across Ohio have signed a petition urging Ohio lawmakers to fix the newly-passed state law regulating hydraulic fracturing (fracking).
The petition reads as follows:
As a medical professional, I urge Ohio legislators to fix the problems in the new hydraulic fracturing (fracking) law, Senate Bill 315, that -
- Make it nearly impossible for us to get crucial information about toxic chemicals used in oil and gas drilling
- Prevent us from protecting public health by prohibiting disclosure of this information
Lawmakers passed a law in June that lets drillers hide chemical information from doctors and puts a gag order on doctors that do manage to get full chemical information from drillers. Cleveland area physician Leland Metheny said in a letter to the editor “medical staff would be best served with information before a dangerous situation has become an emergency.”
— Nathan Rutz, Cleveland campaign organizer, Ohio Citizen Action
