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Study of Health Outcomes Linked to Mountaintop Removal Funded

Erica Peterson | wfpl.org

This week a federal agency announced it will fund a million dollar review of current research on links between surface coal mining and human health risks. 

The announcement comes more than a year after the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection formally requested the review.

Over the last decade, more than two-dozen peer-reviewed studies have found correlations between mountaintop removal coal mining and increased rates of cancer, heart and respiratory diseases, and other negative health outcomes.

More recent studies have found direct links to lung tumors and cardiac dysfunction.

Four public meetings about the review are scheduled to be held by the National Academy of Sciences. The dates of the meetings have not yet been announced.

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