Cancer mortality rates in Appalachian mountaintop coal mining areas

Abstract

Melissa Ahern, Michael Hendryx

Background:Mountaintop coal mining is associated with greater levels of environmental disturbance compared to other mining types, and with significant health disparities.We examined the association between cancer mortality rates in three types of counties in central Appalachia:those with mountaintop coal mining (MTM), those with other surface or underground mining, and those with no coal mining.Methods:Linearregression was used to conduct county-level analyses to determine the association between age-adjusted cancer mortality rates and MTM mining for two periods of time: 1999-2002 and 2003-2007. County-level covariates included smoking, health care access, adultobesity, poverty, and education.Results:Mortality rates for leukemia and for lung, colon, and bladder cancer in MTM counties were significantly greater than those in non-mining areas in 2003-2007 (lung cancer mortality rates were also significantly greater than non-mining areas in 1999-2002).Kidney cancer mortality rates in MTM areas were marginally significantly greater (p < .06) than those in non-mining counties in 2003-2007. Conclusions:Mortality rates from lung, colon, bladder, and kidney cancerand leukemia are significantly associated with MTM mining areas (vs. non-mining counties) in 2003-2007. Results may indicate either that exposures to water and air pollutants from MTM activity have accumulated, or that contamination in MTM counties may have worsened in more recent years in conjunction with increases in the extent of this activity.