Mountaintop Removal

[theHandpuppet]

2. Mountaintop Mining and Environmental Justice

Please note that the link I'm providing here is for a pdf:
http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1005&context=jhdrp

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice
Volume 4, Number 3, Spring 2011, pp.
©2011 Center for Health Disparities Research
School of Community Health Sciences
University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Poverty and Mortality Disparities in Central Appalachia:
Mountaintop Mining and Environmental Justice
Michael Hendryx, PhD, West Virginia University

ABSTRACT
Objectives. This study investigated the associations between poverty rates,
Appalachian mountaintop coal mining, and age-adjusted total mortality rates to
determine if persons exposed to this form of mining experience greater poverty and
higher death rates compared to other types of mining or other areas of Appalachia.

Methods. Mortality rates, poverty rates, Appalachian designation and mining
activity were examined for counties in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia
(N=403). Linear least squares models tested for annual group differences from
2000-2007 in total and child poverty, and total mortality, based on mining type and
Appalachian location. Nested linear models accounting for state-level effects were used
to determine whether mountaintop mining and poverty were associated with mortality
rates controlling for other risks.

Results. Mountaintop mining areas had significantly higher mortality rates, total
poverty rates and child poverty rates every year compared to other referent counties
of these states. Both poverty and mountaintop mining were independently associated
with age-adjusted mortality rates in nested models.

Conclusions. Persons living in MTM areas experience persistently elevated
poverty and mortality rates. Higher mortality is independently associated with
both poverty and MTM, the latter effect suggestive of a possible environmental
contribution from mining activities. Efforts to reduce longstanding health
disparities in Appalachia must focus on those areas where disparities are
concentrated: the Appalachian coalfields.... MORE at link provided above.