skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Federal judge blocks AZ law that 'disenfranchised' Native voters; government shutdown could cost U.S. travel economy about $1 Billion per week; WA group brings 'Alternatives to Violence' to secondary students.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Senator Robert Menendez offers explanations on the money found in his home, non-partisan groups urge Congress to avert a government shutdown and a Nevada organization works to build Latino political engagement.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

An Indigenous project in South Dakota seeks to protect tribal data sovereignty, advocates in North Carolina are pushing back against attacks on public schools, and Arkansas wants the hungriest to have access to more fruits and veggies.

Map Displays Methane Threats in PA

play audio
Play

Wednesday, June 15, 2016   

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Methane pollution is a health hazard, studies have found, and now an online map can tell you how close that risk is to you.

About 1.5 million people live within a half mile of one or more of the more than 100,000 oil and gas facilities operating in Pennsylvania. Studies show that those people are at greatest risk of the negative health impact of methane exposure, including fetal damage and respiratory ailments.

Conrad Schneider, advocacy director for the Clean Air Task Force, said the new online map can help people assess the risk they face in their own homes.

"We hope that, armed with this information, they will demand protective safeguards requiring the industry to clean up its act and reduce these serious risks to public health," he said.

In May, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized standards to cut methane emissions from new sources, but those standards don't cover the hundreds of thousands of already existing facilities.

According to Patrice Tomcik, a western Pennsylvania field organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, two studies of methane impacts on unborn children have been done in Pennsylvania, including one in Butler County where she lives.

"What it showed," she said, "is that there are adverse birth outcomes that are happening the closer that these moms are to gas development."

The map also shows hospitals and schools that are located within a half-mile radius of oil and gas facilities.

Nationally, people living in 238 counties in 21 states face increased risks of cancer. Schneider said those primarily are gas and oil-producing states, and reducing methane emissions would help.

"That will reduce emissions of these toxic air pollutants like benzene and ethylbenzene and formaldehyde as well," he said, "the ones that are causing these cancer risks."

The EPA has begun the process of formulating new regulations to curb emissions from existing sources.

The map is online at oilandgasthreatmap.com.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Peter Sussman is among three patients with disabilities who have asked to intervene in a lawsuit challenging California's End of Life Option Act. (Nancy Rubin)

Health and Wellness

play sound

California's medical aid-in-dying law is back in court. Three patients with disabilities and two doctors are asking to intervene in a lawsuit …


Environment

play sound

A new federal jobs program aims to mobilize tens of thousands of young Americans to address the growing threats of climate change. The American …

Social Issues

play sound

Little Priest Tribal College in Winnebago says its student body and campus are growing - and so are its options for people to study in STEM fields…


The Student Assistance Program in some Ohio schools connects students with tools in order to remove obstacles to learning, and is now incorporating mental-health resources. (Rosalie Murphy/Kent State NewsLab).

Health and Wellness

play sound

By Nathalia Teixeira for Kent State News Lab.Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan reporting for the Kent State-Ohio News Connection Collaboration…

Social Issues

play sound

Maine's new Office of Affordable Health Care holds its first public hearing this week, and people are being strongly encouraged to participate…

According to the Prison Policy Initiative, about one in five of the young people held in juvenile facilities is awaiting trial and has not been found guilty or delinquent. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

The number of children locked behind bars in Alabama has declined, but their advocates said more needs to be done to create alternatives to …

Social Issues

play sound

This coming Saturday, North Dakotans will get a chance to see how election workers go to great lengths to ensure a safe and secure voting process…

Social Issues

play sound

It's Hispanic Heritage Month, and one Nevada organization wants Latinos to realize the power they can have when they are more politically engaged…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021