the allegheny front

News Analysis: Study Says Human Costs Outweigh Benefits of Coal Mining In Appalachia

Ann Murray

Air date: 07/15/2009

OPEN: For the last year, a researcher with West Virginia University's Department of Community Health has been working on an analysis to show the costs and benefits of mining in Appalachian coalfield counties. The study concludes that coal mining costs these areas more in human health than the benefits it provides. The Allegheny Front's news analyst, Ann Murray, joins me to talk about this new research.

M: Let's start with the findings of the study.

A: The study compared Appalachian coal mining counties to non- mining counties. The analysis shows that coal mining areas have significantly more poverty and unemployment. According to the study, these counties also had higher death rates from cancer and other illnesses compared to non-mining areas. Around 4000 to 11,000 excess deaths every year from 1979 to 2005.

M: What did the study attribute those excess deaths to?

A: The study points to variables like high rates of smoking, poverty and lower education. But even after the researchers controlled for these variables, they still found an excess death rate in mining areas that they believe is due to environmental pollutants from extracting, processing and transporting coal.

M: Is there definite proof that these pollutants contribute to higher death rates in mining areas?

A: No. I spoke with Michael Hendryx, the lead author of the study, and he concedes that that's a valid limitation of what they've been able to do so far.

HENDRYX: We have some other independent and indirect evidence that pollution is worse in mining areas than in other areas and air quality is impaired in mining areas compared to other areas but we haven't yet been able to directly link environmental exposures to individual health. That does remain an important next step in the research that we want to do.

M: And will that be the next step in this research?

A: Hendryx says it's one of the things they're trying to work on. They want to collect some better environmental data and relate that to individual measures of health.

M: How did the study make a direct comparison between the human health costs and the benefits of coal mining?

A: The researchers converted mortality estimates to what's known as the value of statistical life lost (cost of illness and loss of productivity) and compared the results with the economic contributions of coal mining. They found that these elevated mortality rates in Appalachian coal mining areas from 1979 to 2005 represented a yearly average of 40 billion dollars lost compared to the 8 billion dollars of economic contributions from coal mining.

M: Is this the first study in the United States to make this kind of cost/benefit comparison in mining areas?

A: It's believed to be the first paper that's taken this type of approach in the United States. There's been similar research done in India, Australia and Great Britain. That research also has documented higher death rates in coal mining areas.

M: As community health researchers, what do the authors of this study think should be done in coal mining areas to lower these high mortality rates?

A:They say that persistent poverty and lower education levels in mining areas have to be addressed. They point out that health risks are tied to an economy that is almost solely dependent on mining. The authors say they're not trying to argue that it's just an environmental problem.

M: What kind of response has this study gotten from lawmakers in Appalachian mining states?

A: Hendryx says he has been approached by a couple of state lawmakers who want to talk . Their conversations haven't progressed very far yet. He speculates that it's hard for lawmakers in coal states to put coal mining in any kind of a bad light.

M: What do Hendryx and his associates hope will happen as a result of their study?

A: That these counties will get more direct revenues from coal severance taxes that now primarily go to the states. Hendryx suggests that these coal mining communities would be required to use that tax money to increase education and expand job opportunities . There is a model for this kind of tax sharing in Virginia.

M: That doesn't sound as though Hendryx believes that coal will be out of the economic picture in these communities any time soon.

A: No. He believes that coal will be part of the energy mix for the next couple of decades. But coal mining counties should start to make the transition to a diversified economy now.

M: Thanks for the information.

A: Sure.