Our partners from Center for Coalfield Justice (CCJ) have an urgent call to action! Please read CCJ's letter and share it with your networks.
It’s been almost four years since Governor Tom Wolf committed $3 million on a pair of studies to explore the potential health impacts of oil and gas development in our communities. The Department of Health chose the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to conduct the studies, and data collection concluded in September 2022. Families who have been impacted by rare childhood cancers demanded these studies, taxpayers funded the studies, but the public has not heard directly from the Department of Health since the studies began.
Residents of the eight-county region included in the studies deserve a status update.
We believe this update is an important step for community inclusion in the research process and that it will strengthen relations with the public, making it easier for researchers to communicate and conduct outreach around the studies' results. Every day that our trusted health institutions do not provide information, residents and health providers are left in the dark. It is urgent that the Department issue an update as soon as possible. The timeliness of this status update is imperative, considering that more young people are being diagnosed with rare cancers in the studied communities, all the while the state continues to grant permits for pollution-emitting fossil fuel projects.
We’ve worked with partners to draft an open letter to the Department asking for an update.
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