“In a new study released this week, it was revealed that among the 1.2 million residents living in parts of Appalachia, an additional 60,000 cases of cancer are directly linked to mountaintop removal mining, a practice that occurs most commonly in West Virginia’s Appalachian Mountains. Using groundbreaking community-based participatory research, West Virginia University researcher Dr. Michael Hendryx conducted the study, which is titled “Self-Reported Cancer Rates in Two Rural Areas of West Virginia with and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining.” This spring, Hendryx and his team used health data collected from residents of Boone County, WV who are directly affected by mountaintop removal mining, and compared the data to communities without mining. The results show that not only is mountaintop removal killing our environment, it’s killing our fellow Americans.”
New Study Links Mountaintop Removal to 60,000 Cases of Cancer in Appalachia via Jessica Dailey – Inhabitat