Health study for compressor; County applies for inclusion in NIH study

Posted 8/21/12

MONTICELLO, NY — The proposed construction of a compressor station along the Millennium Pipeline in the Town of Highland has sparked health concerns among residents in the area. As the shale-gas …

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Health study for compressor; County applies for inclusion in NIH study

Posted

MONTICELLO, NY — The proposed construction of a compressor station along the Millennium Pipeline in the Town of Highland has sparked health concerns among residents in the area. As the shale-gas boom has lead to multiple new gas lines and compressor stations in the region, the concern about possible negative health impacts have emerged in many communities.

One such place is in Madison County, situated to the east of the City of Syracuse. The Madison County Health Department has applied to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a grant to study the impacts of compressor stations on human health and is doing so in coordination with Rensselaer, Montgomery, Schoharie and Niagara counties. The group is seeking up to $500,000 for five years to conduct the study, although the funding from the NIH is not yet in place.

At a meeting at the Sullivan County Government Center on March 10, legislators reached a consensus that the county should seek to become a part of the testing. County Manager Josh Potoseck said there would be testing before the compressor station was built, and then after it was operational, and if the program went forward, there would be no cost to the county.

Nancy McGraw, the director of public health, said the testing would be voluntary if the project goes forward.

Compressor stations have increasingly come under attack from critics who say they cause such short-term conditions as headaches and nosebleeds. Because of the emissions they produce, there are also questions about long-term health risks such as cancer.

Congressman Chris Gibson has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a study regarding the health impacts of compressors, joining critics in Sullivan County who are also calling for an independent health study.

Healthy Families program

Also at the meeting of the Health and Family Services Committee, legislators were given a presentation of the voluntary Healthy Families Sullivan County program, which provides support to high-risk families that are expecting a child.

Program manager Patricia Bennett said staff aids participants in a number of ways including: helping to obtain drivers licenses, search for jobs and obtain clothing for jobs. She said, “We build their confidence.”

She said there were a number of positive outcomes among participants such as a 48% reduction in low-birth-weight infants compared with high-risk families not in such a program.

Bennet said there is an ongoing 15-year study of children in the program that shows that children do better in school, that there are much better parent-child interactions and that children have much better social interactions at school. She said 130 families were involved in the program last year, and so far about 80 are involved this year.

McGraw said, “We hear from families that were involved in the program in 2002, and if you look at the birth rate, which is an average of 600 babies born per year, to be serving this number of families is really significant, especially with the flat funding.

“In terms of asking state legislators for additional funding to expand and sustain what we have, we’ll be asking in the near future for your support for a Healthy Families Program supervisor position.”

She said the budget is $245,000 and there are six staff members involved. She said, “We used to be able to provide… annual events and parent support groups and annual picnics, but that all got cut several years ago because the funding stayed the same but the expenses kept going up.”

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