Study finds Appalachian people living near mountaintop removal suffer worse health & quality of life

Posted from: http://wboy.com/story.cfm?func=viewstory&storyid=99156

A new study conducted by the West Virginia University School of Medicine finds poorer health in Appalachian counties where coal is mined, especially those with mountaintop mining operations.
The study, Health-Related Quality of Life Among Central Appalachian Residents in Mountaintop Mining Counties, appears in the May issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

The study relied on a population-based measure of health-related quality of life developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Residents in four central Appalachian states – Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia – contacted randomly by telephone were asked questions about how many poor mental and physical health days they had experienced in the previous 30 days.

Residents of mountaintop mining counties reported, on average, 18 more unhealthy days per year than did the other populations.

Michael Hendryx, associate professor in the Department of Community Medicine and co-author of the study, noted that the study found effects for women as well as for men.

Hendryx published a controversial study in 2009 that found better health and greater economic prosperity in Appalachian counties with no coal mining than in those with coal mining operations. He and a co-author concluded in that study that the costs of illness and premature death outweigh the economic benefits of the coal industry.

A National Mining Association-commissioned analysis of that 2009 study suggested that it had failed to consider the effects of obesity, diabetes and alcohol consumption; Hendryx countered by calling for an analysis that was not funded by the industry and was, like his study, peer-reviewed.

Regarding the current study, Hendryx said that direct environmental quality data is needed.

"We don't know exactly how this (mining) affects the air and water," he said. "That's one of the big next steps – to collect that data and relate it to human health."

Michael Hendryx testified before the Kentucky House Health and Welfare Committee about the health impacts of mountaintop removal mining in February 2009. Read about his testimony here.