Ocean City Patch Letter to the Editor: Politicians Sacrificing Residents' Health for Pinelands Pipeline

To the Editor:

Scientific evidence based on MIT studies suggests that the emissions from burning Natural Gas might be a major factor in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease. These emissions are mainly Ultra Fine Particles ( UFP’s).

Their danger for human health is probably greater than the larger particles emitted from burning coal due to their ability to avoid being filtered by the nasal hairs and enter the brain directly through the olfactory nerve.

Despite any emerging scientific facts, the politicians are pushing their pipeline through the Pinelands to supply BL England with these emissions 24/7, the public health be damned!

Locally, the Cape May Board of Freeholders under the leadership of Chairman Gerald Thornton voted to endorse the pipeline.

The Upper Township Government under Mayor Palombo did the same. And the biggest cheerleader for this toxic project is Senator Doctor Jeff Van Drew.

In America we have a long tradition of being reactive to bad exposures rather than proactive.

DDT spraying for Mosquitos and X-ray machines at shoe stores for seeing the bones in your feet are two of the many examples which come to mind. Science needs time to determine the safety of UFP’s before allowing BL England to fire up with Fracked gas. Better to exercise caution and due diligence than to deal with a potential epidemic of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

Steven Fenichel, MD