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balancing the scales, March 8, 2010
Canary Project Update
Health effects of coal are enormous, House panel told
KFTC members got a rare opportunity in February to talk to the state legislature about the effects of coal mining on human health. Thanks to support from committee chair Rep. Tom Burch and Stream Saver Bill sponsor and committee member Rep. Mary Lou Marzian, the House Committee on Health and Welfare gave KFTC 20 minutes on its agenda. Three panelists made those 20 minutes count, focusing on the dangers not only to coal miners but to the health of whole communities in the coalfields. KFTC member and Floyd County resident Beverly May, a nurse practitioner who works in Perry County, said she sees miners who have contracted lung diseases from exposure to coal dust and silica dust. “At home in Floyd County, I have friends in Hueysville, David and Allen that are plagued by dust from both nearby strip mines and from coal trucks passing by their homes. This is the same sandstone dust which causes silicosis in the workers, so I have to wonder, what does it do to children with asthma or elders or anyone who breathes it every day?” She described the headwaters of Raccoon Creek, which are now polluted from nearby mining. “So I have to wonder, is the public water supply safe?” “The coal industry isn’t answering these questions because they don’t have to,” said May. “This body and the
federal government have not held them fully accountable.” Dr. Michael Hendryx, director of the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center and an Associate Professor at West Virginia University, said his research has revealed higher rates of chronic heart, chronic lung and renal failure mortality rates in coal-producing areas than in the rest of Appalachia or the nation, even after the rates have been adjusted for other factors such as smoking, age and education. “Part of this difference is due to the poverty and the economic disadvantage that exists in mining areas, but part of it I think is also due to the environmental consequences of mining, including especially mountaintop mining,” said Dr. Hendryx. His research has shown other health effects as well. “More recently we’ve seen problems related to dental health for people who live near mining areas that’s not due to things like access to dental care, age, smoking or other variables,” Hendryx said. “More recently than that, we’ve been doing some analysis that looks at birth outcomes and finds higher rates of low birth weight infants and higher rates of congenital abnormalities for babies that are born in proximity to mountaintop mining.” Hendryx also has found evidence that the effects become stronger as the levels of mining increase. “The worst
Floyd County member Beverly May testified to the committee both as a resident of a coal producing community and also as a health care professional in the eastern Kentucky coalfields.
Dr. Michael Hendryx , director of the West Virginia Rural Health Research Center, testified before the Health and Welfare Committee about his extensive research on the health impacts of coal mining on the miners and the communities. outcomes are present where the mining is heaviest, they are intermediate where the mining is intermediate, and they are best where the mining is absent,” he said. He attributed these health effects to the significant impairment of air and water quality around surface mining activity and the poverty prevalent in mining communities. “It’s going to be critical, I think, for Central Appalachia to diversify away from coal and to other alternatives, not as an environmental step or an energy step but as a public health priority.” Also presented to the committee was a statement from Dr. Paul Epstein, associate director of the Center for Health and the Global Environment at Harvard Medical School. Epstein’s paper focused on the life cycle of coal and the health effects at each point in that cycle. Processing coal, for example, involves washing coal in a chemical mixture and producing a liquid byproduct known as slurry. According to Epstein, 19 of the known chemicals used and generated in processing coal are known cancer-causing agents, 24 are linked to lung and heart damage, and several remain untested as to their health effects. Stored in impoundments atop previously mined areas, slurry is considered by scientists to be an imminent threat to Appalachian water supplies because the ponds can leak or break and enter
nearby waterways. Kentucky has 115 slurry ponds. Coal combustion waste, the product that results from burning coal to produce electricity, contains toxic chemicals and heavy metals such as arsenic and lead. Like slurry, coal combustion waste is often stored in a wet form in ponds and can leach into groundwater supplies. Kentucky has 44 ash ponds, seven of which EPA characterizes as “high hazard,” meaning that a spill from those ponds would likely cause death and/or destruction. Bill Bissett, president of Kentucky Coal Association, was given a few minutes to rebut, but rather than deny any of the findings presented, he focused on the benefits of coal, including scholarships to help eastern Kentucky students go to medical school. In Washington D.C., two days prior to the Frankfort hearing, scientists briefed the U.S. Senate about the human health and environmental impacts of mountaintop removal/valley fill coal mining practices in Central Appalachia. Senators requested the briefing after scientists published extensive findings about the topic and called for an end to mountaintop removal and valley fill permits. To watch a video of the 21-minute state committee hearing, visit www. vimeo.com/9752035.