Health News
- Cdc Says Soar Should Focus On Substance Abuse, Obesity And Diabetes; Idea Of Mountaintop Mining Study Is Largely Ignored
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Shaping Our Appalachian Region, the bipartisan effort to revitalize and diversify Eastern Kentucky's economy, will focus its health efforts on substance abuse, obesity and diabetes, SOAR Executive Director Jared...
- Uk-eku Center Gets $5 Million To Address Occupational Health And Safety Issues In Central Appalachia And Kentucky
A center based in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health has received a five-year, $5 million grant to advance occupational health and safety in Central Appalachia and Kentucky, the university reports. The grant was funded by the National...
- Study Suggesting That Coal Is A Cause Of Health Problems In E. Ky. Is Disputed By Industry And Politicians, Defended By Researcher
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News A heated debate centers on new research showing that residents in Floyd County, where coal is stripped from the tops of mountains and ridges, report more health problems than those in two nearby communities without...
- U.s. Preterm Birth Rate Goes Down But Kentucky's Maternal Smoking Rate Still Second Highest, Putting Preterm Babies At Risk
For the fifth year in a row, the preterm birth rate in the United States has dropped. Which is great news. But Kentucky again had a significantly high smoking rate for expectant mothers -- at 32.2 percent, putting us behind only West Virginia (at 36 percent)...
- Black Lung Affects Kentucky Surface Miners More Than Those In Other States, Cdc Study Finds And Courier-journal Reports
Photo by Getty Images.Nearly 4 percent of surface coal miners who work in Central Appalachia who were tested for a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have black lung disease, compared to 2 percent of all U.S. surface miners and 3.2...
Health News
Study indicates risk of fatal birth defects is higher in counties with mountaintop-removal coal mining
"Children born in counties home to mountaintop coal mines had a 26 percent higher risk of suffering" a fatal birth defect "compared to ones born in non-mining regions," according to a new study, Dan Vergano of USA Today reports. The study, led by health economist Melissa Ahern of Washington State University in Spokane, will appear in the upcoming Environmental Research Journal. (Map shows counties with coal mines in 1996-2003, with "mountaintop" mining counties in darker gray)
Air and water pollution from mountaintop mining led Ahern and her colleagues "to look for health effects on infants" in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, Vergano writes. The researchers found birth defects in mountaintop mining areas were elevated above non-mining areas in six of seven categories, including heart, lung and gastrointestinal. Because of an already established connection between poverty and birth defects, the researchers then "controlled for social factors such as smoking, drinking, mother's education, race and other poverty-related factors" and found a 26 percent increased risk of fatal birth defects in mountaintop-mining counties, Vergano reports.
A spokesman for the National Mining Association "suggested adding more demographic factors to the study might remove the elevated birth defects," Vergano writes, then quotes environmental and pediatric-health expert Lynn Goldman of George Washington University as saying "It isn't proof of cause and effect" and paraphrases her: "Because the study is the first of its kind, public health researchers will need to reproduce the study results to feel confident it has uncovered a real link, she cautions. Further studies will be needed to show how exposures in mountaintop mining communities could lead to more birth defects." (Read more)
Air and water pollution from mountaintop mining led Ahern and her colleagues "to look for health effects on infants" in West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia, Vergano writes. The researchers found birth defects in mountaintop mining areas were elevated above non-mining areas in six of seven categories, including heart, lung and gastrointestinal. Because of an already established connection between poverty and birth defects, the researchers then "controlled for social factors such as smoking, drinking, mother's education, race and other poverty-related factors" and found a 26 percent increased risk of fatal birth defects in mountaintop-mining counties, Vergano reports.A spokesman for the National Mining Association "suggested adding more demographic factors to the study might remove the elevated birth defects," Vergano writes, then quotes environmental and pediatric-health expert Lynn Goldman of George Washington University as saying "It isn't proof of cause and effect" and paraphrases her: "Because the study is the first of its kind, public health researchers will need to reproduce the study results to feel confident it has uncovered a real link, she cautions. Further studies will be needed to show how exposures in mountaintop mining communities could lead to more birth defects." (Read more)
- Cdc Says Soar Should Focus On Substance Abuse, Obesity And Diabetes; Idea Of Mountaintop Mining Study Is Largely Ignored
By Melissa Patrick Kentucky Health News Shaping Our Appalachian Region, the bipartisan effort to revitalize and diversify Eastern Kentucky's economy, will focus its health efforts on substance abuse, obesity and diabetes, SOAR Executive Director Jared...
- Uk-eku Center Gets $5 Million To Address Occupational Health And Safety Issues In Central Appalachia And Kentucky
A center based in the University of Kentucky College of Public Health has received a five-year, $5 million grant to advance occupational health and safety in Central Appalachia and Kentucky, the university reports. The grant was funded by the National...
- Study Suggesting That Coal Is A Cause Of Health Problems In E. Ky. Is Disputed By Industry And Politicians, Defended By Researcher
By Molly Burchett Kentucky Health News A heated debate centers on new research showing that residents in Floyd County, where coal is stripped from the tops of mountains and ridges, report more health problems than those in two nearby communities without...
- U.s. Preterm Birth Rate Goes Down But Kentucky's Maternal Smoking Rate Still Second Highest, Putting Preterm Babies At Risk
For the fifth year in a row, the preterm birth rate in the United States has dropped. Which is great news. But Kentucky again had a significantly high smoking rate for expectant mothers -- at 32.2 percent, putting us behind only West Virginia (at 36 percent)...
- Black Lung Affects Kentucky Surface Miners More Than Those In Other States, Cdc Study Finds And Courier-journal Reports
Photo by Getty Images.Nearly 4 percent of surface coal miners who work in Central Appalachia who were tested for a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have black lung disease, compared to 2 percent of all U.S. surface miners and 3.2...