By KPR
Charleston, WV – Last month, researchers at Washington State University and West Virginia University released a study that found a correlation between mountaintop removal mining birth defects.
Inbreeding in Appalachia is one many stereotypes, perpetuated by movies and even Vice President Dick Cheney in 2008 at a National Press Club Event: "We have Cheneys on both sides of the family, and we don't even live in West Virginia!" Now D.C.-based law firm Crowell & Moring is citing Appalachian inbreeding as a way to discredit science linking mining and birth defects. A critique posted on the Crowell & Moring website last month raises several issues with the study's methodology, including that the study failed to account for consanguinity or inbreeding which can also cause birth defects. Crowell & Moring represents the National Mining Association, but an NMA spokesman says the association wasn't involved in the firm's critique. Studies have shown that consanguinity, or inbreeding, isn't any more common in Appalachia than it is in other areas. A Crowell & Moring spokeswoman said in an email response: "Consanguinity is one of a number of commonly addressed issues in studies of this type, regardless of geography."