Pennsylvania Law on Fracking Chemicals Worries Doctors

AVELLA, Pa.— About two years ago, Dr. Amy Pare began treating members of the Moten family and their neighbors from a working-class neighborhood less than half a mile from a natural gas well here.

A plastic surgeon whose specialty includes skin cancer, Pare removed and biopsied quarter-size skin lesions from Jeannie Moten, 53, and her niece, only to find that the sores recurred. "The good news is that it wasn't cancer, and the bad news is that we have no idea what it is," Pare said.

Determined to understand the illnesses, Pare went last May to the Motens' neighborhood to collect urine samples from a dozen people. To her dismay, she found chemicals not normally present in the human body: hippuric acid, phenol, mandelic acid.

The Motens and their neighbors suspect their ailments could be tied to the natural gas well. Pare says she is not sure what is causing their problems. But she worries that she may have a hard time determining the exact cause because of a provision in a new Pennsylvania law regulating natural gas production.

Continue reading... 

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/21/nation/la-na-adv-fracking-doctor...