Three major health providers in Northeast and Central Pennsylvania have begun gathering a wealth of data that could be invaluable in determining the health impact of the Marcellus Shale natural gas boom.

Geisinger Health Systems, Guthrie Health and Susquehanna Health, along with other medical, environmental and academic entities, have begun collecting data on health and public safety near thousands of gas wells, hundreds of compressor stations and along pipelines.

They are doing so without much support from the state, even though it is the state government's responsibility to track health data and a state commission recommended two years ago that the government appropriate $2 million to set up a statewide gas-related health registry.

For now the data collection effort is funded by grants from other public and private sources.

The objective is not to track specific issues to specific locations, but to analyze health trends in comparison with data related to drilling. Such information could be very useful in crafting future economic, environmental and health policy relative to drilling.

Data being collected probably won't be used for that purpose, however, unless lawmakers ensure that the Department of Health has the resources it needs to establish a health registry tracking public health across the gas fields, and that the collected data informs public policy.