chemical fumes in Burgettstown
There was a radio story this morning about workers at a health clinic in Burgettstown (west of Pittsburgh, PA) getting sick from fumes. They're temporarily moving the clinic.
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Published: May 15, 2012
by Rob Stein
Kay Allen had just started work, and everything seemed quiet at the Cornerstone Care community health clinic in Burgettstown, Pa. But things didn't stay quiet for long. "All the girls, they were yelling at me in the back, 'You gotta come out here quick. You gotta come out here quick,'" said Allen, 59, a nurse from Weirton, W.Va. Allen rushed out front and knew right away what all the yelling was about. The whole place reeked — like someone had spilled a giant bottle of nail polisher remover. "So I told everybody to get outside and get fresh air. So we went outside. And Aggie said, 'Kay, I'm gonna be sick.' But before I get in, to get something for her to throw up in — she had to go over the railing," she said.
Nothing like this had ever happened in the 20 years that Allen has been at the clinic. After about 45 minutes, she thought the coast was clear and took everyone back inside. "It was fine. But the next thing you know, they're calling me again. There was another gust. Well, the one girl, Miranda, she was sitting at the registration place, and you could tell she'd had too much of it. And Miranda got overcome by that and she passed out," she said.
'It's The Unknown I Think That's The Scariest Thing'
This sort of thing has been happening for weeks. Mysterious gusts of fumes keep wafting through the clinic. In fact, just the day before being interviewed by NPR, Allen suddenly felt like she'd been engulfed by one of these big invisible bubbles. "And all of a sudden your tongue gets this metal taste on it. And it feels like it's enlarging, and it just feels like you're not getting enough air in, because your throat gets real 'burn-ey.' And the next I know I ... passed out," Allen said.
Half a dozen of Allen's co-workers stopped coming in. One old-timer quit. No one can figure out what's going on. For doctors and nurses used to taking care of sick people, it's unnerving to suddenly be the patients. "It's the unknown I think that's the scariest thing," she said.
Richard Rinehart, who runs the rural clinic, can't help but wonder whether the natural gas drilling going on all around the area may have something to do with what's been happening. "I lay at bed at night thinking all kinds of theories. Is something coming through the air from some process that they're using? I know they use a lot of chemicals and so forth. Certainly that could be a culprit. We're wondering, Is something coming through the ground?" Rinehart said, noting that he'd just noticed a new drill on a hill overlooking the back of the clinic.
Now, no one knows whether the gas drilling has anything to do with the problems at the clinic. It could easily turn out to be something completely unrelated. There's a smelting plant down the road and old coal mines everywhere. "Anything could be possible, and we just are trying to get to the root of it," he said.
Mysterious Symptoms, Lots Of Questions
People living near gas well drilling around the country are reporting similar problems, plus headaches, rashes, wheezing, aches and pains and other symptoms. Doctors like Julie DeRosa, who works at Cornerstone, aren't sure how to help people with these mysterious symptoms. "I don't want to ignore symptoms that may be clues to a serious condition. I also don't want to order a lot of unnecessary tests. I don't want to feed any kind of hysteria," DeRosa said.
To try to figure out what's going on, the clinic called the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which is investigating. It also started testing the air for chemicals, monitoring wind direction around the clinic and keeping diaries of everyone's symptoms. In addition, the clinic contacted Raina Rippel, project director for the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project.
The local nonprofit was set up recently to help people in this kind of situation. Her team tested tap water from inside a men's room and from a stream out back. Rippel knows people in the area have lot of questions.
"Is my water fit to drink? Is the air fit to breathe? Am I going to suffer long-term health impacts from this?" she said.
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Charles Werntz at West Virginia University, an occupational medicine specialist, is used to dealing with chemical exposures. Lately, he's seeing more people who live near the drilling. But for now, he says he can't really do much more than offer basic advice: Drink bottled water, air out the house, leave your shoes outside. If it's still too bad, move — if possible.
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Back at Cornerstone, Rinehart just wants to get back to taking care of patients. "We are in the business of trying to improve and maintain the public's health here. And now we are in the throes of it. And we're trying not to point fingers," Rinehart said. The next day, people got sick again and the clinic had to be evacuated once more. So they've moved the clinic to temporary offices until someone figures out what's going on.
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[see http://m.npr.org/news/front/152268475?singlePage=true for complete article]
Views: 5180
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by David Perotto on -
Our friends at Energy in Depth are on this one:
http://www.energyindepth.org/state-reps-claims-dont-pass-the-smell-...
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Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on
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Lets see no one can take a sample of the air? Sounds like a UFO abduction case bit I would give more credibility to the UFO!
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Permalink Reply by Dan on
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Maybe they should look for the meth or bath salt lab in the basement. Sounds like a few of them are smokin it too.
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Permalink Reply by Paul Heckbert on
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Canon-McMillan Patch contains this article:
http://canon-mcmillan.patch.com/articles/more-than-one-thing-smells...
More Than One Thing Smells Funny About Cornerstone Care Closure
State representative says closure could have been prevented if the Department of Environmental Protection had done its job.
State Rep. Jesse White, D-Cecil
May 9, 2012
[excerpted]
I’m disturbed about the closure of Cornerstone Care, but I’m even more disturbed and infuriated at the way the closure could have possibly been prevented, and what this tells us about the failure of the Department of Environmental Protection to do its job.
The first evacuation came on March 28. When local fire departments and hazmat units were unable to find the source of the odors, Cornerstone officials contacted the state Department of Environmental Protection’s southwest regional office. They referred Cornerstone to the DEP Oil and Gas Unit, which is based out of Harrisburg.
Why the Oil and Gas Unit? It turns out that several Marcellus Shale wells are nearby, including an active site about half a mile away from the clinic, and there is a sizable natural gas compressor site being constructed less than a mile from the clinic.
Let’s stop right here for a minute, because I know the response forming in many peoples’ minds, and I want to address it right here and now. First, I am in no way saying that oil and gas activity caused the problems at Cornerstone Care. I am not a scientist, and although I know a lot more than I did a few years ago about the drilling process, I don’t pretend to be one.Second, I am not trying to whip people into a frenzy to oppose the natural gas drilling. In fact, let’s remember it was the Regional DEP office that brought the Oil and Gas Unit into the discussion in the first place. In fact, one of the biggest arguments made in favor of Act 13, which took away local zoning rights (only for oil and gas operations) from municipalities was that the state, through the DEP, was by far the most competent and qualified to handle concerns.
So we have a system where the DEP Oil and Gas Unit is the only group who can investigate these types of problems, and although I cannot say with certainty the problems at Cornerstone are related to drilling, no one can say with certainty that they are not caused by drilling. You would think the Oil and Gas Unit would be quick to respond, if for no other reason to dispel any concerns right away, especially for a high-profile public health facility situated in the dead center of the Marcellus Shale boom.
So how can the DEP Oil and Gas Unit justify not returning phone calls from Cornerstone for over two weeks after the first evacuation? I was in a meeting with Cornerstone officials and DEP staff two days before the final evacuation and closure of the clinic, and it was confirmed that the Oil and Gas Unit never responded. It was also revealed that the company doing the drilling nearby was contacted and didn’t respond for over two weeks. We were told if there was one more incident, the clinic would have to close, and that’s exactly what happened two days later.
Because of the media attention surrounding the closure, the DEP announced they are finally conducting air quality tests in the facility. Ironically, the tests won’t be completed for two to three weeks, which means they could have theoretically been completed before the closure if the DEP had responded to the situation before it got out of hand.
Adding to the uncertainty is a statement made by a DEP spokesman that the DEP found no connection of the problems to the drilling activity; how could anyone possibly be able to make such a statement without doing proper investigation and testing? Similarly, a spokesman for the drilling company said the company knew about the odor before they began drilling and that no odors are coming from their drilling site.I don’t know about you, but I’m not comfortable just blindly accepting the unsubstantiated claim of a public relations official on the gas industry payroll without any documented evidence to support their denial of involvement.
When problems like this occur, I want an independent, objective, scientific investigation. I want the openness and transparency and accountability we always hear about but rarely see. We’ve been told by the Corbett administration and the gas industry that the DEP are the only ones qualified to perform those tasks, but in this instance they completely and totally dropped the ball.
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Permalink Reply by Moe on
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Well, we certainly wouldn't want common sense to rear its ugly head and spoil such a good story, now would we?
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Permalink Reply by 2wnbjkbqgwdf2 on
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Boo hoo. So you keep posting stories that have no basis. I could write this article a different way. READY?
Funny smell around Cornerstone Care. Building has been shut down until the problem is found. No one knows the cause.
The End.
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Permalink Reply by Billy Park Whyde on
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Investigators find cause of the odor. Blonde secretary broke a bottle of finger nail polish remover in her purse. When investigators questioned her she said she had no idea it would create such a odor and claimed it was Bush's fault.
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Let me translate this drivel.
D-Cecil, = Sticking up for my neighbors in South Fayette who are constantly making my phone ring off the hook. If I dont support them. I am unemployed.
D- Cecil = Blame the DEP for every percieved shortcoming, except when the Dems had the Governors office. Back then this never happened and the DEP did their job just fine.
D-Cecil, here's the tie in.....wait for it.....It's Corbett's fault!!!
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Why don't you be clear about what "The Patch" actually is???? Professor???
Let me help, "The Patch" is a local online internet newspaper, geared to different local communities, kind of like everyone gets an individual voice. Correct?
It seems like a neat and campy concept. Local flavor to it, lots of stories about the happenings of the day and town, gramdmas' award winning apple pie recipe, dry cleaners and florists can advertise there, they hire local college graduates maybe 2-3 years out of school who will basicly work for nothing just for the writing experience, and won't object to their content being edited, with a fine tooth comb.
"The Patch" is owned by Ameria Online, with executive offices in NYC, all tied together with the left leaning crap that finds it's way onto AOL and their big news site the Huffington Post.
Anything that makes its way into "The Patch" is a carefully contrived message, with only one conclusion.
Wrong source to site as something with credibility.
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Permalink Reply by lynn on
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Pasting that article here does not make it truthful. It just means that PA has the same kind of media hound representatives that OH has. They are incapable or more likely unwilling to understand timelines or science. Their national masters have set an agenda and courting favor means they must oppose any and all sources of carbon fuel, even if-or especially when-it requires twisting the facts.
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