Silent No More

This is a photo of the Cumberland Mountains I shot over the weekend. (Imagine how challenging the high holidays have been in Appalachia. It's worth it though given the work that is to be done for the people of the region during the next year.) The brown spots represent coal mines. There is a massive tan spot in the bowl to the right of this photo. It's a Vulcan mine that spans more than 15,000 acres across three counties.


Coal is our future. Or so some would like me to believe. I was understandably upset the first time I saw the t-shirt moniker on a city employee as she dined at the cafe near the courthouse. My level of outrage knew no boundaries when I saw this yesterday.

KY has data to support my outrage, but I would like to illimuniate recent data from a nearby state because said state is more affected statewide from the mining industry than KY. It is reported that West Virginia has approximately 20,000 coal miners, down from a high of 130,000 miners in 1940, while the number of tons of coal mined has increased. Certainly technology has taken more men and women out of the mines, but the health effects remains. Michael Hendryx and colleagues of the University of West Virgina found that as coal production increases, the incidence of chronic illness increases as well. Coal-processing chemicals, equipment powered by diesel engines, explosives, toxic impurities in coals, and even dust from uncovered coal trucks can cause environmental pollution that could have a negative affect on public health.

According to Hendryx, data suggest that people in coal mining communities

* have a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease.
* have a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) such as emphysema.
* are 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure (hypertension).

Hospitalization rates in these communities also were studied. Data suggest the risk of hospitalization stays for

* COPD increases 1 percent for every 1,462 tons of coal.
* hypertension increases 1 percent for every 1,873 tons of coal.

“Total mortality rates are higher in coal-mining areas compared to other areas of Appalachia and the nation,” Hendryx said. “The incidence of mortality has been consistently higher in coal-mining areas for as long as Centers for Disease Control rates are available, back to 1979.”

The cost of mining to the American people and health resources reports that according to another study is approximately $8 billion to the economies of Appalachian states while the costs of reduced life-spans associated with coal mining were $17 billion to $84.5 billion.

I suspect the slogan should read: Coal is the limit to our Future.

Coal miners of today deserve more than a house like below that ironically cannot afford to keep the lights on:



-Photo from Hale Gap, VA