Oil and gas companies have spent lots of time and money arguing Colorado doesn't need new rules regulating their industry.

What happened to Cathy Behr might convince you otherwise.

Behr is a nurse at Durango's Mercy Regional Medical Center.

A gas-patch worker showed up in her ER in April, soaked in a sweet- smelling fluid after a drilling accident.

Behr removed his boots and helped him shower, breathing in the chemical fumes.

She lost her sense of smell. Her vision blurred. Then came heart, liver and respiratory failures that nearly killed her.

Three doctors diagnosed her with chemical exposure. Trying to figure out how to treat her, one called Weatherford, her patient's oil-field employer, to learn which chemicals it uses to make ZetaFlow, the fluid both were exposed to. The company denied him the information, saying it was a trade secret.

ZetaFlow is one of several formulas companies inject into wells to release gasses. After much lobbying, the so-called frack juices are exempt from environmental laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act. Congress is investigating possible health risks.

As it happens, Colorado's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission is considering a broad set of new rules, including one that would address scenarios like Behr's. In case of accidents, it would require companies to reveal the ingredients of materials they use.

The industry objects, saying that being forced to reveal proprietary secrets may prompt it to leave Colorado.

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"It is much like asking Coca-Cola to disclose the formula of Coke," one Halliburton executive testified.

Weatherford this week had an even more contemptuous way of describing the health effects of its ZetaFlow.

"It's got parameters that you need to work in, that you need to be mindful of when you're using it. That's sort of a given. I mean, if I ate too much chocolate, that could be hazardous to my health, too," said spokeswoman Christine McGee.

Behr — a wife and mother who is back at work and mostly recovered after nearly losing her life in April — had this response to McGee:

"Chocolate, huh? Let's give those boots to her and have her take a couple of deep breaths."

Behr is no opponent of the industry that provides much of her county's tax base. "I don't want to be the canary in the coal mine. I just want to make the system better," she says.

She tried to do just that by asking to tell her story at a recent commission hearing. Industry brass objected, saying she was added to the witness list too late for them to prepare a rebuttal. She was denied her request in a 5-4 decision.

"We were trying to be fair from a due process standpoint," said commission chairman Harris Sherman, Gov. Bill Ritter's natural resources director, who cast the deciding vote. His board aims to decide on the new rules in August.

Meantime, the state is investigating Behr's case, as well as that of the field worker, who told the Durango Herald he did not fall ill.

"I'm angry that here's an industry that would not help someone who suffered a chemical exposure get the care she needed," said Martha Rudolph of the health department.

La Plata County Commissioner Wally White had harsher words for an industry that's making record profits in his county, yet using scare tactics by threatening to leave: "If they don't care about the health of our people, then I'd be happy to see them go."

Susan Greene writes Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Reach her at 303-954-1989 or greene@denverpost.com.