WATCHDOG MEDICAL ADVISORY BOARD 

The Paradise Watchdogs today announced the formation of the Watchdog Medical Advisory Board to advise area residents on the dangers of particulate matter generated by a quarry, concrete plant, and asphalt plant in New Hanover Township, Montgomery County, PA.

Board members include pulmonologist, Dr. Fred Kueppers, professor of medicine at Temple University School of Medicine and director of the Critical Care and Pulmonary Function Laboratory at Temple University Hospital. Dr. Kueppers, who has extensive experience in lung testing will act as chief consultant to the board.  Other members of the board include pharmacologist Gloria Martel, respiratory therapist Jim Jessum, and Tammy Wagner, representing the parents of children with asthma and other respiratory illnesses at New Hanover Upper Frederick School.

The Watchdog Medical Advisory Board was formed in response to two concerns.  The first is the lack of PA Department of Environmental Protection regulations on amount and type of airborne particulate matter generated by extractive mining. The second was the testimony of Mr. William Flederbach, air quality expert for New Hanover Township.  In testimony before the township zoning hearing board in December 2003, Mr. Felderbach concluded that the proposed quarry would produce 13 times the amount of dust allowed by EPA.  According to his study, the major concentration of dust will be blown across Church Road toward the Perkiomen Valley Academy and the New Hanover Elementary School, both within 2000 feet of the proposed quarry.  At open township hearings earlier this year, parents of school children and local residents with asthma, emphysema, and environmental allergies, voiced their concern over the impact of this amount of dust on the health and well being of residents and students.

Because of these concerns, the Paradise Watchdogs decided to form the Watchdog Medical Advisory Board with the goal of providing lung testing to residents and school students. The board will gather baseline data (through lung testing) that can be used to quantify the effect of rock dust on residents and students.  If the data demonstrates patterns of lung damage, the board will press State and Federal elected officials for stricter air quality regulations.  This data may also be used as a basis for possible class actions.