skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

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

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Health Impacts of Oil and Gas Pollution: Texas Mom Shares Her Story

play audio
Play

Monday, July 30, 2018   

Dallas — The Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department are rolling back regulations for pollution from oil and gas facilities, and a new report says that's putting children at risk.

The report, from Moms Clean Air Force, lays out what it claims are the consequences of pollution from oil and gas drilling, in the words of seven women living in vulnerable communities.

Dallas County mom Misti O'Quinn is among those sharing her story. She said nearby oil and gas infrastructure poses a serious threat to her three children - two of whom suffer from moderate to severe asthma. Smog makes it worse, she said, and air pollution knows no borders.

"So it all just kind of blows in,” O’Quinn said. “That mixed with car exhaust, mixed with buses - it's just almost like a melting pot of bad stuff for your lungs."

O'Quinn said her daughter missed an entire week of classes during the last school year because of asthma flare-ups. According to the report, oil and gas pollution is responsible for more than 140,000 summertime asthma attacks in Texas children, and more than 105,000 lost school days.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area also is rated worst nationally for the health burden on African-Americans from oil and gas pollution. Quinn said this vulnerability inspired her to create the group Breath is Lyfe, which educates parents about the impacts of air pollution on health.

"None of us are exempt from it. In the nicer areas where they don't see it, it's just not an issue to them, but it really is,” she said. “So we to all need to come together on that, and I feel like we can be pretty successful in making our voices heard."

O'Quinn noted the Dallas area has been in a state of non-attainment for quite some time, which means air pollution is above levels considered healthy to breathe. And she's outraged that federal officials want to weaken safeguards that help protect communities.

"Just from the standpoint of being in attainment based on the standards that were already in place, we haven't even done that, and we know that the air is bad,” she said. “So for us to roll back any of the safeguards that are supposed to be there, how would that not make it worse? It's baffling."

According to the report, more than 8 million tons of methane smog forming volatile organic compounds are released into the air every year.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

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