EHP defends public health in the face of oil and gas development.
We provide frontline communities with timely monitoring, interpretation, and guidance. We engage diverse stakeholders: health professionals, researchers, community organizers, public servants, and others. We do so because knowledge protects health.
Introducing the Compounds of Concern Tool
EHP is excited to introduce our new Compounds of Concern tool! The tool provides users with easy-to-understand details on exposure symptoms and health impacts of chemical compounds associated with industrial operations, including oil and gas facilities. On Wednesday, July 16, we hosted a one-hour launch event covering details about the new tool. EHP staff showed how to access and use the tool, which centers on an easily searched interactive database of compounds.
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Compounds of Concern will be especially helpful to anyone living near polluting facilities. For example, if you are having trouble breathing and want to know what compound(s) may be causing that symptom, you can find possible answers here. Or, if you hear about the release of a chemical compound from a nearby facility in the news, you can find out more about what that compound is, how it’s used, and its related health effects.
Introducing AirView Public
EHP is excited to introduce AirView Public, a free tool designed to help communities understand their air quality so that they can better protect residents from pollution harms. This online tool provides access to air quality readings alongside weather and pollution dispersion information. With AirView Public’s pollution mapping feature, users can view the path that air took to arrive at monitoring locations when those monitors recorded high pollution levels.
Users can access readings in AirView Public from 13 communities across Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio: Beaver, PA; Ligonier, PA; Mon Valley, PA; Neville Island/Coraopolis, PA; Union Township, PA; Yukon, PA; Youngstown, OH; Clymer, NY; Dover, NY; Peekskill, NY; Seneca Falls, NY; Slate Hill, NY; Tompkins/Ithaca, NY.
EHP hopes to expand access to many more communities by inviting areas with existing air quality monitoring networks to add their data to AirView Public.
New Way to Request a HYSPLIT Dispersion Map
HYSPLIT models create maps showing where emissions would travel or disperse from a proposed facility or existing facility of concern. These maps can help organizers to prioritize outreach to community members most at risk of exposure to pollution and to demonstrate the geographic reach of the facility's emissions to local decision-makers.
EHP has simplified the process of creating these visuals with a simple form to request a HYSPLIT dispersion map.
Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom: What the Shapiro Administration Can Do to Better Protect Public Health
Pennsylvania residents impacted by the vast network of shale gas infrastructure—wells, compressor stations, processing plants, pipelines, truck traffic, etc.—had every reason to expect that Gov. Shapiro and his administration, once in office, would work hard to defend their health from sources of pollution. Two years later, residents are still waiting for meaningful action.
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EHP offers analysis of the Shapiro Administration's efforts to protect residents from the harms of shale gas pollution in “Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom: What the Shapiro Administration Can Do to Better Protect Public Health,” a companion piece to our 2022 white paper. Download the white paper here.