The fracking industry uses a wide variety of legal tricks, including trade-secret claims and non-disclosure agreements, to hide details of its activities, and particularly cases where it has harmed people, from regulators, the media, researchers and the general public. Continue reading
A Family, Including Two Children, Forbidden From Speaking About Fracking For The Rest Of Their Lives After Nearby Shale Gas Wells Made Them Sick (Click To Enlarge)
Judge defeats challenge to ‘medical gag order’ on health risks from fracking (Russia Today, November 2013) A doctor who recently treated a patient directly exposed to fracking fluid, suffering from “low platelets, anemia, rash and acute renal failure that required extensive hemodialysis” has been denied the right to challenge a “medical gag rule” which forbids doctors for disclosing the chemicals involved to anyone, including the patients themselves
Lifelong Gag Order Imposed on Two Kids in Fracking Case (State Impact, August 2013) Two young children are forbidden from speaking about the Marcellus Shale or fracking for the rest of their lives following a settlement in a high-profile Marcellus Shale lawsuit alleging the family became sick from the gas drilling activity in western Pennsylvania
Drillers Silence Fracking Claims With Sealed Settlements (Bloomberg, June 2013) In cases across the US fracking companies have agreed to cash settlements or property buyouts with people who say they have ruined their water, but in most cases homeowners must agree to keep quiet, with non-disclosure agreements hiding an unknown number of contamination cases from regulators, the media and health researchers
Colorado docs chafe at secrecy oath needed for access to chemical list (Denver Post, March 2013) Colorado doctors are challenging a confidentiality pledge they must sign to get information on chemicals used by the oil and gas industry — information they may need to treat patients and protect public health, which means they could be punished for sharing information about chemicals with other medical professionals and public health authorities
Fracking Secrets by Thousands Keep U.S. Clueless on Wells (Bloomberg, November 2012) The 19,000 trade-secret claims made in Texas in 2012 through August hid from regulators one out of every seven chemicals and concentrations of the chemicals used, to hydraulically fracture 3,639 wells