Demand Transparency from Pitt's School of Public Health
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
Pennsylvanian taxpayer money funded a pair of studies meant to explore the potential health effects of the natural gas industry in the most heavily drilled region of the state, where rare cancer clusters have emerged. On October 5th, 2022, the research institutions who received this money, the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and the Pennsylvania Department of Health, were supposed explain the study process to the public and take questions from community members. This meeting was to be the first time since the launch of the studies that parents and community members would have the opportunity to learn from the institutions conducting the studies.
Suddenly, after corresponding with pro-fracking state senator Camera Bartolotta, Pitt's School of Public Health and the PA Department of Health pulled out of the public meeting. These institutions backed out of the meeting after months of collaborating with local nonprofits in the affected community.
This petition specifically targerts Pitt's School of Public Health. We are owed transparency and accountability from the School of Public Health in regards to these publicly funded studies. Their results could have profound implications for all of our lives, and the results must not be influenced by politics.
Petition by
To:
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
From:
[Your Name]
Dr. Maureen Lichtveld
Dean, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health
130 DeSoto Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Dear Dr. Lichtveld,
We, the undersigned, are writing to you to express our deep concern about the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health’s recent decision regarding the Pennsylvania Health and Environment Studies, a pair of studies meant to explore the potential health effects of the natural gas industry in the most heavily drilled region of the state.
In 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Wolf ’s administration allocated $3 million in taxpayer money to fund these studies. Though study results are not yet available, the Center for Coalfield Justice, and Environmental Health Project collaborated for months with representatives from the PA Department of Health and researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health to organize a public meeting on October 5th, 2022 in Canonsburg, PA. Researchers were set to explain the study process to the public and take questions from community members. This meeting was to be the first time since the launch of the studies that parents and community members would have the opportunity to learn from the institutions conducting the studies.
Both the University of Pittsburgh and the Department of Health backed out of attending the public meeting, seemingly after an exchange of correspondence with Senator Camera Bartolotta, a state politician who receives large sums of money from the natural gas industry.
Given these publicly known facts about Senator Bartolotta and the shocking behavior of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Public Health towards a grieving community, we, the undersigned, have justified reasons to be concerned about transparency, accountability, and integrity of the School of Public Health regarding it abstention from last month’s meeting. . The residents of Pennsylvania, and especially the families who have endured their children developing Ewing sarcoma and other rare cancers, deserve to fully know about the studies’ processes, to ask your researchers questions, and to be assured that the results of the studies will not be influenced by politics. As of the publishing of this letter, we, the undersigned, have not received what is owed to us as citizens and taxpayers.
Our demands of you, Dr. Lichtveld, as the Dean of the School of Public Health, are the following,
1) provide the public with as much transparency as possible about the studies’ processes while the studies are still being done;
2) allow your researchers to take questions from the public and answer those questions transparently, with the protection of anonymity for the residents that ask the questions if they choose to remain anonymous.
3) provide an estimated date for when the results of the studies will be available for the public to view, and when and how the researchers will transparently present the studies to the public.
We await your response. These studies are being funded by Pennsylvanians and therefore belong to Pennsylvanians. We are owed full transparency and accountability from the School of Public Health regarding these publicly funded studies.
Signed,