Health Leaders Weigh In On Fracking Report
By Mark Abrams
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Two Philadelphia health professionals are conceding the latest report released by an anti-fracking environmental group has no direct impact on residents living in the city.
Dr. Walter Tsou, former Philadelphia health commissioner, and Ruth McDermott-Levy, a nursing professor at Villanova University, both appeared at a Philadelphia news conference Tuesday conducted by Penn Environment.
The group released a report claiming children and seniors are at risk because of fracking and toxic chemicals used in the process.
Dr. Tsou, however, acknowledged after the news conference -- during which he endorsed the group's report -- that there's no risk here.
"The Marcellus Shale is not underneath Philadelphia," Tsou says, "so we don't actually have gas drilling and fracking in Philadelphia."
McDermott-Levy says the push by Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf and Democratic legislators to tax the gas drillers to get revenue to support cash-strapped schools, including those in Philadelphia, would make it difficult to curtail operations of drillers..
"They're thinking of short-term monetary gains," she says, "but they're not really thinking about what that really means to the citizens of Pennsylvania."