Act 13 in 3D: Drilling, Doctors, and Disclosure Symposium to Be Held at Pitt Feb. 28

PITTSBURGH—Act 13 of Pennsylvania’s oil and gas law requires well operators and others to disclose trade secrets and other proprietary information to health professionals who request it for use in their diagnosis or treatment of individuals who may have been exposed to hazardous chemicals. That same law requires health care professionals to keep the information secret, a provision that critics say amounts to a “gag rule.”

The Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law has invited proponents and opponents of the law representing the oil and gas, public health, environmental, and legal industries to a symposium from noon to 5 p.m. Feb. 28 in Ballroom B of Pitt’s University Club, 123 University Place, Oakland. Titled “Act 13 in 3D: Drilling, Doctors, and Disclosure—Reconciling Divergent Interests,” the symposium will provide a neutral forum for in-depth discussions on topics ranging from the proprietary value of chemical “recipes” to the impact of the confidentiality provision on emergency preparedness.

The symposium’s keynote speaker will be John R. Hanger, special counsel to the law firm Eckert Seamans, former secretary of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, and former commissioner on the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission. His address is titled “The Truth about Gas Drilling and America’s Energy Choices.” Other speakers will include Bernard Goldstein, emeritus professor in—and the former dean of—Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health; Lauren M. Williams, who earned her Juris Doctor degree, magna cum laude, from Pitt’s School of Law and is a member of the law firm Curtin & Heefner; T.H. Lyda, a member of the law firm Burns White LLC, which is a generous sponsor of the symposium; and William M. Carter, Jr., dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. 

A complete schedule of the symposium is available via http://www.law.pitt.edu/events/2013/02/act-13-in-3d-drilling-doctors-and-disclosure.

For additional information, please email pjephl@pitt.edu. 

The cost of the symposium is $40. Checks should be made payable to the “Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health.”

Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board has approved the symposium for 4.5 hours of credit (3.5 hours substantive and 1.0 hour ethics), for which there is an additional $75 fee. Checks for CLE credit should be made payable to the University of Pittsburgh School of Law.

About the Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law:
The Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law is the youngest scholarly publication at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. The journal seeks to inspire awareness of, and to inform practitioners and legal scholars about, an array of current environmental and public health issues through its biannual online publication, which contains academic scholarship and is produced by Pitt law students.

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