Pa. health agency doesn’t keep Marcellus database

Associated Press

ALLENTOWN, Pa.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said Friday that it does not formally keep track of citizens’ health complaints about gas drilling and has not, as a result, linked drilling to any health consequences.

“We have not made a conclusive link between an individual’s health and natural gas drilling,” agency spokeswoman Brandi Hunter- Davenport said in response to an Associated Press inquiry. “The Department will continue to monitor any citizen complaints which come to our attention.”

The AP asked the health department for data on the number of drilling-related complaints it has received from citizens — and whether the agency has ever made a finding that drilling impacted human health — in the wake of claims by a northern Pennsylvania hairdresser who says that a gas well near her home made her sick.

Though gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale has boomed since 2009, with more than 3,200 wells drilled to date, Hunter-Davenport was unable to say this week how many health complaints the agency has received and investigated.