Study Links Birth Defects to Mountaintop Mining

[Divernan]

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Study links birth defects to mountaintop mining
Thursday, July 14, 2011
By Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Birth defect rates are significantly higher in and around central Appalachian areas where there is mountaintop removal coal mining, according to a recent study that environmentalists say provides new reasons to curb the controversial mining practice.

The study, co-authored by Michael Hendryx, a West Virginia University professor, reviewed National Center for Health Statistics birth defect records from 1996 through 2003, and suggests links between mountaintop mining and elevated rates for six of seven types of birth defects that were studied in four states where mountaintop removal mining is done.

The study found that the "rates for any anomaly were approximately 235 per 10,000 live births in the mountaintop mining area versus 144 per 10,000 live births in the non-mining area."

Circulatory/respiratory birth defects in mountaintop mining areas were found to occur in 41 of 10,000 live births, compared to an incidence of 15.3 per 10,00 live births in non-mining areas and 20 per 10,000 live births in mining areas not using mountaintop removal techniques.



Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11195/1160323-114.stm#ixzz1S4diflBc

[Ichingcarpenter]

1. Inbreeding is the cause of birth defects around Coal Mines

Inbreeding is the cause of birth defects around Coal Mines

Coal Industry Attorney’s Blame Coal’s Health Impacts on Inbreeding

Remember the study published a few weeks ago that found a link between mountaintop removal mining and birth defects? Well, so do the coal industry’s lawyers, and they’ve got a different explanation:
Last month, when coal execs read the report linking birth defects to mountaintop removal mining, they weren’t exactly thrilled. One rebuttal, penned by four attorneys with the firm Crowell & Moring, which represents the National Mining Association, accused the study’s authors of using cherry-picked and misleading data. But that apparently wasn’t convincing enough, so they went a step further and employed a discredited stereotype about inbreeding in West Virginia.

“The study failed to account for consanquinity , one of the most prominent sources of birth defects,” the attorneys’ statement said. It then went on to advertise the firm’s services to coal companies looking to “counter unfounded claims of injury or disease” from potential lawsuits sparked by the study.
Consanguinity, which is presumably what the attorneys were referring to, is defined as: “relationship by descent from a common ancestor.”

Seriously, WTF.

Ken Ward talked to Michael Hendryx, one of the authors of the MTR study, who broke it down:


http://www.enviroknow.com/2011/07/13/coal-industry-mtr-...

[No Elephants]

2. Robert Kennedy, Jr. has done a great job of bringing the issue

of mountaintop mining to the forefront.

http://www.movingpicturesnetwork.com/28441/bobby-kennedy-jr-slams-mountaintop-coal-mining/

What an amazing and service-oriented family.

[buckrogers1965]

8. Class action libel law suit?

First: Wow. Just wow.

Secondly, I would love to see a class action libel law suit against these attorneys by families whose lives have been devastated by birth defects.

[Divernan]

3. Important re opposing HR2018, which would further weaken fed. Clean Water Act

The links are stronger, especially for circulatory/respiratory and urinary and genital system defects, in the more recent study time period, 2000-03, when there was more mountaintop mining activity.

The study findings were highlighted by environmental organizations at a news conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C., in an effort to influence voting by the U.S. House on HR 2018, a bill that would weaken federal Clean Water Act provisions protecting stream quality and turn over regulation of those waters to the states.

The bill, supported by West Virginia's congressional delegation, was passed by the House later Wednesday. President Barack Obama has said he would veto the legislation.

"What more does it take to put the brakes on mountaintop removal?" Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said at a morning news conference in Washington. "There is already strong scientific evidence that this extreme form of strip mining harms people's health and the environment. Now we find out that unborn children may be victims too. This study is a huge red flag telling Congress to stop and look at the science."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11195/1160323-114.stm#ixzz1S4p4Ltka

[Divernan]

4. WVA electric utility giant shelves plans to capture carbon dioxide

WASHINGTON — A major American utility is shelving the nation’s most prominent effort to capture carbon dioxide from an existing coal-burning power plant, dealing a severe blow to efforts to rein in emissions responsible for global warming.

American Electric Power has decided to table plans to build a full-scale carbon-capture plant at Mountaineer, a 31-year-old coal-fired plant in West Virginia, where the company has successfully captured and buried carbon dioxide in a small pilot program for two years.

The technology had been heralded as the quickest solution to help the coal industry weather tougher federal limits on greenhouse gas emissions. But Congressional inaction on climate change diminished the incentives that had spurred A.E.P. to take the leap.

Company officials, who plan an announcement on Thursday, said they were dropping the larger, $668 million project because they did not believe state regulators would let the company recover its costs by charging customers, thus leaving it no compelling regulatory or business reason to continue the program.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/business/energy-environment/utility-shelves-plan-to-capture-carbon-dioxide.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

[kas125]

5. Good! I was recently paid to do a phone survey about energy

and was then told I'd receive something in the mail I was to read and then take another survey for which I'd be paid again. It turned out to be all about CCS and clean coal. I told them exactly what I think of "clean coal" and storing waste that we don't know how to dispose of properly. I'm glad they're not going to do it. Of course, they're stopping because of money, not because of what people think, but either way, this is good news.

[bigworld]

6. What was the birth defect rate in these areas before mountaintop removal started?

Mountaintop removal usually takes place in some extraordinarily poor areas with already atrocious health issues.

I'm no fan of mountaintop removal, but correlation does not imply causation!

[Divernan]

7. Evidently the rates have gone up in the same geographic areas for three kinds of defects

"The links are stronger, especially for circulatory/respiratory and urinary and genital system defects, in the more recent study time period, 2000-03, when there was more mountaintop mining activity."

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11195/1160323-114.stm#ixzz1S6weIZLc

[Zorra]

9. More lies being spread by gay librul anti-pollution enviro-hippie socialists..

The chemicals dispersed by mountaintop mining are completely harmless and beneficial. Let's take a look at some of the positives about the cyanide leaching process as described by this article that was planted by the gold mining industry at wikipedia to make cyanide look harmless.

Despite being used in 90% of gold production,<5> gold cyanidation is controversial due to the toxic nature of cyanide. Although aqueous solutions of cyanide degrades rapidly in sunlight, the less-toxic products, such as cyanates and thiocyanates, may persist for some years. The famous disasters have killed few people — humans can be warned not to drink or go near polluted water — but cyanide spills can have a devastating effect on rivers, sometimes killing everything for several miles downstream. However, the cyanide is soon washed out of river systems and, as long as organisms can migrate from unpolluted areas upstream, affected areas can soon be repopulated. In the Someș river below Baia Mare, the plankton returned to 60% of normal within 16 days of the spill.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_cyanidation

You see? Humans can be warned not to drink or go near polluted water! The kids are safe! The disasters have only killed a few people. And, cyanide is soon washed out of a river after it kills off most of the life in the river -- but because it is washed out into the sea, the wildlife in the various riparian zones that are devastated can repopulate!

How could anyone think that the harmless and wonderful by-products of mining could be dangerous enough to cause birth defects! It's just silly.

It's a proven fact that environmentalists are drug addled wackos trying to get their dope money by convincing nice folks such as yourself that substances like nuclear and mining wastes, etc. are toxic and a threat to living things. Dismiss them for the drug crazed leftist loonies they are, even if they have advanced doctorates in environmental science.

Toxic waste is harmless. As CEO of Koch-Filthco, I give you my solemn word that toxic substances will never harm you. I feed them to my own children along with their vitamins every morning. I use it myself. Tastes like chicken.

(This public service message brought to yo by Koch-Filthco.)

We let you have it!