Fracking chemicals may be making you ill, but even your doctor will be forbidden to tell you precisely how or why in Pennsylvania USA

In February this year House Bill No. 1950 was passed into law by the Pennsylvania General Assembly. In effect this new law states that if chemicals released in the coal seam gas mining process make you ill, then in certain circumstances your doctor can make a written request to discover the details of those chemicals from the mining company involved.

However he is not allowed to tell anyone about those chemicals – even if you are the affected patient according to the public health and environmental community.

(11) If a health professional determines that a medical emergency exists and the specific identity and amount of any chemicals claimed to be a trade secret or confidential proprietary information are necessary for emergency treatment, the vendor, service provider or operator shall immediately disclose the information to the health professional upon a verbal acknowledgment by the health professional that the information may not be used for purposes other than the health needs asserted and that the health professional shall maintain the information as confidential. The vendor, service provider or operator may request, and the health professional shall provide upon request, a written statement of need and a confidentiality agreement from the health professional as soon as circumstances permit, in conformance with regulations promulgated under this chapter. [my red bolding]

As Walter Tsou, president of the Philadelphia chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, put it, "What is the big secret here that they're unwilling to tell people, unless they know that if people found out what's really in these chemicals, they would be outraged?"

One wonders how doctors in Australia would fare if they made similar requests of coal seam gas exploration and mining companies operating in this country.