This article originally provided by The Charleston Gazette

March 25, 2008

Study: Coal counties have higher disease rates

By Ken Ward Jr.
Staff writer

West Virginians who live in the state's coal counties are more likely to have heart, lung and kidney disease, according to a new West Virginia University study.

Higher levels of coal production are associated with higher rates of a variety of illnesses among residents, according to the study.

Based on phone interviews with nearly 16,500 residents, the study may be the first of its kind to examine health effects of living in U.S. coal-mining communities.

"Residents of coal-mining communities have long complained of impaired health," said Michael Hendryx, a study author and associated director of the WVU Institute for Health Policy Research in the university's community medicine department.

"This substantiates their claims," Hendryx said this morning. "Those residents are at increased risk of developing chronic heart, lung and kidney diseases."

Researchers used county-by-county coal production figures to compare whether residents living in areas with more mining suffered from higher rates of illnesses typically linked to coal-related pollution.

"As coal production increased, health status worsened, and rates of cardiopulmonary disease, lung disease, cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney disease increased," said the study, being published in the April issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "Within larger disease categories, specific types of disease associated with coal production included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, black lung disease and hypertension."

The study found that people in mining communities faced a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease and a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, such as emphysema. Residents also were 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure, the study found.

"We've considered that chronic illness might be prevalent in these areas because rural West Virginians have less access to health care, higher smoking rates and poorer economic conditions," Hendryx said. "We've adjusted our data to include those factors, and still found disease rates higher in coal-mining communities."

Hendryx did the study with Melissa M. Ahern of Washington State University.

According to the study, previous scientific literature suggests that the risk for these illnesses increases with exposure to coal byproducts.

"Toxins and impurities present in coal have been linked to kidney disease and to hypertension and other cardiovascular disease," the study said. "The effects also may result from the general inflammatory or systemic consequences of inhaled particles."

Adverse health effects may also be "a result of slurry holdings that leach toxins into drinking water and air pollution effects of coal mining and washing," the study said.

The study "serves as a screening test to examine whether coal mining poses a health risk for adults living near the mining sites," researchers said.

"Confirmatory tests should be undertaken to establish mechanisms of action, magnitude, and health consequences of an exposure effect," the study said.
Read more in Wednesday's Charleston Gazette.