Monday, June 24, 2013
Be open on fracking-fluid contents
This fall legisla tors will vote on Ohio Senate Bill 17, The Fracking Emergency Medical Right To Know Act. Please let your senators know that asking first responders, as well as fracking crews, to handle unknown chemicals is morally reprehensible.
Is it fair to ask anyone to do such a thing? Would we ask our children to do it? First responders put themselves in harm’s way to protect us every day and ask for very little in return. Cops, firefighters, and EMS crews deserve to know what they are being exposed to in order to plan how to decontaminate and treat themselves.
When I was a firefighter, we planned for events that could happen in our community. A key part of that was knowing what we would come into contact with. Should our emergency forces be cannon fodder in the line of corporate profit?
Let us not forget the crews using the fracking fluids. Should they know what they are handling? Think of construction workers years ago handling this “new” stuff called asbestos. The industry swore that it was safe. The industry was wrong. Now many of those men and women suffer with cancer contracted while trying to put food on the table to feed their children.
Many of the contractors and manufacturers are out of business now. So who is held responsible? Let’s not repeat this mistake. Let’s show that Americans are smarter and more compassionate than that. People are Americans; corporations are not. People look out for one another; corporations do not. Please support SB17 The Fracking Emergency Medical Right To Know Act.
Colin Sikon, Strongsville