Between The Lines - David Brown: Project Investigates Pennsylvania Health Problems to Determine Links with Natural Gas Fracking operations (Week Ending July 11, 2014)

Award-winning Investigative Journalist Robert Parry (1949-2018)

Award-winning investigative journalist and founder/editor of ConsortiumNews.com, Robert Parry has passed away. His ground-breaking work uncovering Reagan-era dirty wars in Central America and many other illegal and immoral policies conducted by successive administrations and U.S. intelligence agencies, stands as an inspiration to all in journalists working in the public interest.

Robert had been a regular guest on our Between The Lines and Counterpoint radio shows -- and many other progressive outlets across the U.S. over four decades.

His penetrating analysis of U.S. foreign policy and international conflicts will be sorely missed, and not easily replaced. His son Nat Parry writes a tribute to his father: Robert Parry’s Legacy and the Future of Consortiumnews.

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The Resistance Starts Now!

Between The Lines' coverage and resource compilation of the Resistance Movement

"The man who predicted Trump presidential win now says Trump impeachment could happen," AM Joy with Joy Reid, MSNBC, Jan. 21, 2018
"Sketchy Kazakh money finds its way into Trump dealings," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Red flags seen in many Trump real estate deals," The Rachel Maddow Show, MSNBC, Jan. 15, 2018
"Secret Money: How Trump Made Millions Selling Condos To Unknown Buyers," BuzzFeed, Jan. 12, 2018
"The Scandals of Donald Trump: Presidential Edition," The Atlantic, May 15, 2017
"Here's what we know so far about Team Trump's ties to Russian interests," Washington Post's ongoing compilation
"What Comey Was Investigating, Explained," The Moscow Project, Center for American Progress

"Donald Trump's Financial Ties to Russian Oligarchs and Mobsters Detailed In Explosive New Documentary from the Netherlands," Dutch TV documentary, Alternet.org, May 12, 2017
Ongoing compilation of Trump's creeping authoritarianism," MotherJones.com
Full resource list ...

SPECIAL REPORT: "The Resistance - Women's March 2018 - Hartford, Connecticut" Jan. 20, 2018

Selected speeches from the Women's March in Hartford, Connecticut 2018, recorded and produced by Scott Harris

SPECIAL REPORT: "No Fracking Waste in CT!" Jan. 14, 2018

Jen Siskind Jennifer Siskind, local coordinator for Food and Water Watch, describes the campaign to stop fracking waste in Connecticut, which so far has led to fracking waste bans in 34 towns around the state. Interviewed by Richard Hill on Mic Check, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT

SPECIAL REPORT: "Resistance Round Table: The Unraveling Continues..." Jan. 13, 2018

Lindsay Kanaly The panel discusses Trump's long history of racism and the Republican voter suppression juggernaut confronting Democrats leading up to the 2018 elections. Special guest: Lindsay Kanaly, a lead organizer of the Women's Marches planned for Jan. 20, 2018. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill on Resistance Roundtable, WPKN Radio, Bridgeport, CT.

SPECIAL REPORT: "Capitalism to the ash heap?" Richard Wolff, Jan. 2, 2018

Richard Wolff, Economics professor Richard Wolff declares U.S. capitalism to be beyond repair and suggests the need for a radical alternative. Interviewed by Richard Hill

SPECIAL REPORT: Maryn McKenna, author of "Big Chicken", Dec. 7, 2017

Maryn McKenna, investigative journalist and author of Big Chicken, talks about the widespread use and dangers of antibiotics in commercial poultry, beef and fruit production. Interview by Bill Duesing, Richard Hill and Guy Beardsly on WPKN's Organic Farm Stand.

SPECIAL REPORT: Nina Turner's address, Working Families Party Awards Banquet, Dec. 14, 2017

Nina Turner, president of Our Revolution, talks about the fight ahead for progressives as she receives the Working Families Organization Award for Exceptional Leadership Towards Advancing Progress. The event was held in Meriden, CT. Produced by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Dec. 12, 2017

Working Families Party of CT talks strategy and issues for 2018.
Lindsay Farrell, executive director of the Working Families Party of Connecticut, discusses the state's electoral landscape and lays out the issues and strategies that could lead to progressive victories in 2018. Interviewed by Richard Hill.

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Dec. 9, 2017

Disturbing developments in the Trump/Republican Agenda
Focus on the tax bill, destruction of our public lands, North Korea and Trump's private CIA. Panel: Scott Harris, Ruthanne Baumgartner and Richard Hill. Special guest: Jo Macallero of Rise and Resist.

SPECIAL REPORT: On Tyranny - one year later, Nov. 28, 2017

Professor Timothy Snyder, author of the highly acclaimed resistance manual On Tyranny, discusses his book and offers a fresh assessment of the state of our beleaguered republic. Timothy Snyder, history professor at Yale, is introduced by Stanley Heller, administrator of Promoting Enduring Peace, a Connecticut-based organization that sponsored this event at the United Church Parish House in New Haven on Nov. 28. A brief interview with Snyder conducted by WPKN radio producer, Richard Hill, follows his talk.

SPECIAL REPORT: Mic Check, Nov. 12, 2017

Lynne Ide, director of program and policy with the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, talks about the current state of health care coverage in Connecticut. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resistance Roundtable, Nov. 11, 2017

Focus on the Republican tax plan, the just-released autopsy on the Democratic Party, and Internet censorship by Google, Facebook and Youtube. Including an interview with Hilary Grant, a lead organizer with Action Together Connecticut, who discusses the local results of the recent election, with hosts Richard Hill, Scott Harris and Ruth Baumgartner WPKN producers

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Two leaders from Redneck Revolt, an anti-racist, anti-capitalist movement, talk about their work organizing with white working class people in Suffolk County, New York. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Rainy Day Radio, Nov. 7, 2017

Bruce Gagnon, coordinator for the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space, describes the extent of -- and motives underlying -- the vast US network of military bases around the globe. Interviewed by Richard Hill, WPKN radio producer

SPECIAL REPORT: Resisting U.S. JeJu Island military base in South Korea, Oct. 24, 2017

Joyakol, South Korean peace activist and singer, discusses the crisis on the Korean peninsula and focuses on the resistance to the U.S. huge military base being constructed on Jeju Island. The event was sponsored by the Greater New Haven Peace Council and this audio was recorded by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.
Joyakol discusses Americans' biggest misconceptions about the conflict between North and South Korea and the U.S., Interview by Richard Hill, WPKN producer.

SPECIAL REPORT: John Allen, Out in New Haven

John Allen, founding director of the New Haven Pride Center, Connecticut, talks about his new LGBTQ television show, Out in New Haven, which presents a range of political and cultural issues to the community. Interviewed by Richard Hill on WPKN's Rainy Day Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2018.

2017 Gandhi Peace Awards

Promoting Enduring Peace presented its Gandhi Peace Award jointly to renowned consumer advocate Ralph Nader and BDS founder Omar Barghouti on April 23, 2017.

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THANK YOU TO EVERYONE...

who helped make our 25th anniversary with Jeremy Scahill a success!

For those who missed the event, or were there and really wanted to fully absorb its import, here it is in video

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 1 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Jeremy Scahill keynote speech, part 2 from PROUDEYEMEDIA on Vimeo.

Between The Lines on Stitcher

Between The Lines Presentation at the Left Forum 2016

"How Do We Build A Mass Movement to Reverse Runaway Inequality?" with Les Leopold, author of "Runaway Inequality: An Activist's Guide to Economic Justice,"May 22, 2016, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, The City University of New York, 860 11th Ave. (Between 58th and 59th), New York City. Between The Lines' Scott Harris and Richard Hill moderated this workshop. Listen to the audio/slideshows and more from this workshop.

Listen to audio of the plenary sessions from the weekend.

JEREMY SCAHILL: Oscar-nominated documentary filmmaker "Dirty Wars"

Listen to the full interview (30:33) with Jeremy Scahill, an award-winning investigative journalist with the Nation Magazine, correspondent for Democracy Now! and author of the bestselling book, "Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army," about America's outsourcing of its military. In an exclusive interview with Counterpoint's Scott Harris on Sept. 16, 2013, Scahill talks about his latest book, "Dirty Wars, The World is a Battlefield," also made into a documentary film under the same title, and was nominated Dec. 5, 2013 for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary Feature category.

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Project Investigates Pennsylvania Health Problems to Determine Links with Natural Gas Fracking

Posted July 2, 2014

Interview with David Brown, director of Public Health Toxicology for Environmental and Human Health, Inc., conducted by Melinda Tuhus

$fracking$

In what is likely the first such study of its kind in the U.S., a team of scientists and public health professionals has examined a group of residents of southwestern Pennsylvania to determine if the health problems they report are the result of living near the industrial practice of "hydraulic fracturing" or drilling of horizontal wells for natural gas, known as "fracking." That's the process that involves drilling deep underground into tight shale formations, injecting a million or more gallons of water, sand and a list of secret chemicals, to shatter the rock and release the gas.

The formerly bucolic Pennsylvania landscape has been transformed by the construction of well pads, gas flaring towers and the rumbling of hundreds of heavy trucks that service the sites, traveling on local roads and highways. Air and water pollution related to fracking operations has prompted many residents with health problems to seek answers about the possible links of their illness to the natural gas extraction process.

David Brown, director of Public Health Toxicology for Environment and Human Health, Inc., helped coordinate the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project. Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Brown, past chief of Environmental Epidemiology and Occupational Health in Connecticut, who discusses the project’s investigation to determine the cause of residents' complaints.

DAVID BROWN: We looked for health effects – potential health effects – in people living in southwest Pennsylvania, but we looked in a fairly traditional way for public health, which is to identify the people who thought they were ill or seemed to be ill, and examined them and their situation, including their housing and things that were near their housing, to try to determine what their health status was, and what potential things might be affecting their health. We knew that gas fracking was going on very near their property and where they were living. So we went to Pennsylvania. It involved a nurse practitioner who examined people, it involved a community involvement people who were able to communicate with the population of people and have them explain what their problems were. We also looked at the scientific information that was available about what the exposures might be that these particular families might be exposed to.

What we found is that were clearly health effects that were occurring in a portion of the people we were talking to, and those health effects involved physical effects like nosebleeds, headaches, increased asthma attacks, skin rashes, and some of what we call cognitive effects – confusion, inability to sleep, high senses of worry and anxiety because they had essentially lost their ability to control their environment around their homes. There was gas drilling going on near their homes and extraction of gas; fumes were getting into their homes and near their homes, and some of them were finding that their water was contaminated and undrinkable. There was a reasonably large number of people involved. Washington county, Pennsylvania, has about 200,000 people, and we think the numbers of those people who are living near gas wells or gas production facilities who are potentially being exposed to emissions from the facilities – either through the air, the water or the soil – there was probably 5 to 15 percent of that population that looked like they could be at risk.

BETWEEN THE LINES: But, David Brown, correlation is not necessarily causation. Are you convinced these maladies are the result of fracking and not something else?

DAVID BROWN: Well, we're pretty convinced it has to do with the gas activity that's going on down there. One of the things we're looking for before we can answer the question you just asked is what in public health is called a case description. What is different about this population than other people that might be sick in Washington Country? And you know, everybody has a certain amount of illness about them and we wanted to sort out which was which, and I think we're getting close to the kind of exposures we did – we did a simple process where we took the individuals from each family we examined, we took their data and put it into a standardized format and then gave it to a panel of experts and said, Okay, identify which of these people you think would be likely to be sick anyway; which would be potentially affected by the gas drilling, and if so, what would they be affected by? And we found a portion of those people that in terms of the time when the drilling started and when the reported they were ill; in terms of the distance from the gas facilities; and in terms of the other health conditions they had, it could only be, or the most likely explanation is that they were being affected by the gas drilling.

BETWEEN THE LINES: On July 13, thousands of people are expected to protest at the offices of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, against its likely approval of liquified natural gas export facilities that would be supplied by an increase in fracking around the country.

DAVID BROWN: FERC takes a very narrow view of what it's responsible for in a very broad problem. FERC could go a long way toward correcting this problem by saying, You have to tell us what's in the gas line; you're going to have to tell us where you got it from and where you got it. FERC doesn't do that; it says, No, we're responsible for moving the gas and that's what we do, and that's our charge. If they would be a little more thoughtful, in my judgment, about what their responsibilities are on a larger scale, the risks would be understood. As it is now, one would have to be very naive to allow the person who provides the pipe to decide whether gas will come into your neighborhood or not.

Find more information about the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project and the hazards of natural gas fracking, by visiting environmentalhealthproject.org. Transcript compiled by Melinda Tuhus.