Office of Surface Mining wants National Academy of Sciences to review mountaintop removal studies

Office of Surface Mining director Joseph Pizarchik said Friday that his agency will "recommend that the National Academy of Sciences review a series of studies that have found that residents living near mountaintop removal mining operations face increased risks of serious illnesses and premature death," Ken Ward reports for the Charleston Gazette. 

"Former West Virginia University researcher Michael Hendryx and other scientists have, over the past few years, published more than two dozen peer-reviewed journal articles that examined the relationship between large-scale strip-mining operations in West Virginia and the health of residents who live near these mines," Ward writes. "The work has linked health and coal-mining data to show, among other things, that residents living near mountaintop removal mines face a greater risk of cancer, birth defects and premature death." (Read more)