Ohio Drilling Regulations Would Bar Doctors From Publicly Revealing Chemicals

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Doctors given new access to the proprietary chemical recipes that oil and gas drillers use to crack into Ohio shale would be prohibited from sharing the information with the public under an energy proposal moving through the Ohio House.

Environmentalists liken the restriction to a gag order on medical professionals. Drilling companies say it's necessary to protect trade secrets.

On Tuesday, the Ohio State Medical Association, Ohio's largest doctors' group, said the wording of the provision could keep physicians from complying with mandates for public-health reporting.

"The OSMA strongly believes that physicians should have access to all of the relevant information needed to deliver high-quality medical care to their patients," senior director of government relations Tim Maglione wrote in a letter to Public Utilities Chairman Peter Stautberg. "This information also needs to be shared with other medical providers who are contributing to caring for a patient."

The association urged lawmakers to clarify the provision so that chemical trade secrets can be shared with public health and regulatory agencies. Environmental groups testified earlier the wording could also prevent doctors from sharing chemical information with first responders to chemical spills at well sites.

Ohio Department of Natural Resources spokesman Carlo LoParo said the legislation makes proprietary chemical information from drillers available to doctors for the first time. He said medical professionals responding today to a plant explosion or chemical spill would not receive as much information as will be made available from drillers.

Well operators are generally required under the bill to report the chemicals they are using in the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the high pressure drilling technique used to blast chemical laced water into shale formations to release oil and gas resources.

Chemical reports on file with the state list each chemical's trade name, supplier, purpose, ingredients, identifying code, and percentage within the fracking fluid. In certain instances, the word "proprietary" is used in place of ingredients or an identifying code. The purpose and percentage are still listed.

Similar limits on medical professionals have become law in Pennsylvania and other drilling states. The rules are distinct from new chemical disclosure guidelines in the Ohio bill.

The Ohio legislative committee continued to debate the provision, part of a wide-ranging energy bill, on Tuesday. A committee vote was expected to come Wednesday.

Maglione said he was hopeful the committee would make the association's proposed changes to the bill before it clears committee.

"Doctors are permitted to get that information, which is a good thing," he said. "But the second provision says you can't do anything else with it. So what we're asking is for clarification."

Besides drilling regulations, the bill lays out other rules for Ohio's growing oil and gas industry and adjusts to Ohio's alternative energy standard to include waste heat.

Also on HuffPost:

From our partners

• 10 Of The Worst Wildfires In U.S. History - Mother Nature Network
• 5 Energy Projects Being Backed By The U.S. Government - Mother Nature Network
• The Stunning Rise In California Solar Generation - EarthTechling

Comments

[sushi27]

04:49 PM on 06/05/2012

Ah yes, the republican way around healthcare and lawsuits, pass laws allowing industries to do any fruigin thing they want, while forbiding the doctors to tell you what caused your illness, two birds, one stone - and yet, people vote for these horrible excuses for human beings. My heart bleeds for the good, hardworking people of Ohio.....

[floridan56]

01:43 AM on 05/25/2012

Nothing new. The same thing was happening with people suffering affects from New Horizon and as in Louisianna all the time. They actually manage to squelch Dr.s from aknowledging the obvious .
Amazing the weight these chem. and energy clowns seem to have eve nover those who took a hypocratic oath to serve for the help and healing of others .

[MaxHeadroom]

08:01 PM on 05/24/2012

Vote those goons out of office. It's your right as an American citizen to know what you are exposed to in your homes regarding water and food.

What has this country come to?

[floridan56]

01:44 AM on 05/25/2012

loopholes.

[ecoalex]

06:47 PM on 05/24/2012

All leases have protection clauses mostly for the gas/oil cos.If there is a lawsuit,the settlement clause says the settlement can't be disclosed ,any information about the suit;the health consequences from exposure to the gas/oil operation.

The oil/gas fracking era will leave a legacy of poisoned aquifers and cancer.All for 30 years of carbon energy.It's not worth it.

[l monroe]

02:07 PM on 05/24/2012

Are they insane? If your doctor can't tell you you need to stop drinking poison what kind of country are we running? I read murder in the first all over it. If I shoot a gun in the air an it kills someone I go to jail; if I pour poison into the ground, and it kills someone, I pay a $500 fine. The person gets away with murder. There is no intent to kill but the law is strange that way. The real joke is the "retention ponds" holding the acidic brine solution are jokes. The next question is are they testing the pipes for Chinese knock offs.

[bleedingheartliberal218]

11:45 AM on 05/24/2012

Pennsylvania fracking laws gag doctors from revealling the ingredients of toxic acidfrack soup to patients and other medical professionals when a person is injured by it and treated for it.

Ohio has the same kind of teabaggers running the state that Pennsylvania has running and ruining it.

[ECJIM 3ABTPA BONHA]

10:19 AM on 05/24/2012

So there choosing a "trade secret" over public health? Must be some nasty stuff in those chemicals. Hopefully there's a doctor out there That really loves what he does and has concerns about the public health and he ends up leaking the information. I Image if there trying to suppress doctors talking about it....then it is a health hazard.
That's like the tobacco companies telling doctors not to tell the public smoking is bad for you.

[l monroe]

02:13 PM on 05/24/2012

Hydrochloric and sulfuric acid a trade secret, Drano. . . Hello

[floridan56]

01:45 AM on 05/25/2012

Halliburton loopholes.

[Davidc Smith]

09:40 AM on 05/24/2012

Another god given right bites the dust courtesy of the GOP. Lets see industry now has the right to poison people and potentially the water table-- and people don't even have the right to hear the truth or consult with their physcian over it. Talk about the Constitution and basic human rights being Royally Fracked!!!!

[l monroe]

02:16 PM on 05/24/2012

Try again, when the tailing piles are analyzed signature will become self evident. Polluters get sued in federal court everyday.

[Jack Davies]

07:05 AM on 05/24/2012

If they think that many doctors are going to be talking about this, perhaps WE should talk about this....

[El Justiciero]

05:21 AM on 05/24/2012

Someone leak it.

[robear6987]

03:56 AM on 05/24/2012

FRACKING FOR GAS IS YET ONE MORE THING KILLING OUR ENVIROMENT AND WE THE PEOPLE.

[Oginikwe]

02:02 AM on 05/24/2012

Well, they certainly gag me.

[WESmith]

06:27 PM on 05/23/2012

I have no idea if the government is that stupid that they can't figure out the difference between fracking and drilling or if this is political rhetoric. Most States have strict drilling and completions regulations. The Federal Government, not so good. Remember, the Federal government contracted with three time loser BP to oversee the drilling, completion and production of our oil in the GOM. MMS gave them regulations that were written in Alaska and talked about polar bears and walruses. No wonder MMS mysteriously disappeared before the Congressional investigation. Our Congressmen proved they knew nothing about the petroleum business. They did a great job at campaigning for themselves though.

[idyl]

09:04 AM on 05/24/2012

The new Ohio regulations fall short of implementing American Petroleum Institute recommendations for best practices in new wells:

1) depth of surface casing below drinking water aquifer (half what is considered best practice), 2) formation integrity tests are not mandatory (highlighting any problems with gas migration, drilling fluid contamination, casing, and cementing concerns).

http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/tcmar/ohio_fracking_bill_does_not_go.html

If there's a revolving door between industry and regulators in Ohio DNR, they don't seem to wish to go even far enough to implement their own recommended best practices by the American Petroleum Institute. Another sure sign the industry is getting a free pass from State regulation, and that federal oversight (free of local economic conflict of interest) is needed.

[WESmith]

05:05 PM on 05/23/2012

"Well operators are generally required under the bill to report the chemicals they are using in the hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the high pressure drilling technique used to blast chemical laced water into shale formations to release oil and gas resources."

Proof that that these people don't know their annulus froma hole in the ground. There is absolutely no difference in the drilling and completing of any water, thermo, oil or gas well.
Fracking is done after the well has been drilled and completed. Then they have to blast holes, called perforations, in the casing. Then they flow thickened water into the existing fractures and widen them by 1/4 inch, if they are lucky and fill that crack with sand. If there is no sand, the formation will go back to exactly what is was before, impermeable. If it is shale, the water must match the formation with no chemicals. Pure water would make the formation more impermeable. The sand needs to get there with split second accurancy. A few seconds early or late and the well is ruined and there goes a few million down the drain. That is bad when a good well will take 10 years to break even on costs. The best frack fluid is made of the same stuff they make K-Y Jelly out of. The US Government tried nuclear bombs to frack. Didn't work at all. Need a gentle touch that only K-Y Jelly can provide. Without sand of course.

[lhoffman5]

05:00 PM on 05/23/2012

I truly do understand "trade secrets" and the need to protect them. BUT, when it comes to public health (not yelling for emphasis only) THERE ARE NO TRADE SECRETS!!!!! You want to drill and pump "stuff" into the ground that no matter what you say can and already has contaminated water supplies in Ohio and Pennsylvania just across the NY border (where I live). Look, as I said to the NY City Council in an email about drilling in NY state: We in the State would love the jobs and taxes drilling would bring. But if the companies can not guarantee the safety of the water supply for over 12,000,000 people we don't need it. Either make the drilling and waste removal safer OR build a plant that will clean and recycle the water. And Dam right we all want to know what you are putting into the ground under our homes, schools, hospitals, and parks. When it comes to saving a million or two, we already know that business will sacrifice the public for the private profit. They do it all the time!