Surprise, Surprise - WV Mountaintop-Removal Towns Air Quality Far Worse Than Thought

CHARLESTON, W.Va. --A new study reports finding much larger levels of tiny -- but potentially dangerous -- particles of air pollution near mountaintop removal mining operations than in non-mining communities.

The study by researchers working at West Virginia University is the latest in a long series of papers to raise questions about the public-health impact of large-scale surface coal mining in Appalachia. The paper was published online Wednesday in the peer-reviewed Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

Researchers compared the levels of various sizes of air-pollution particles, including very small "ultra-fine particles," in two communities near mining operations to a third community, with no coal mining.

They found that concentrations of the smallest particles and the potential for those particles to lodge in human lungs "were significantly greater around mining areas compared with non-mining areas," the study said. The study said the results demonstrate "elevated risks to humans" and that the greater lung dose "was correlated with elevated disease rates in the West Virginia mining areas.

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