IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i21p4278-d283342.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Increased Dementia Mortality in West Virginia Counties with Mountaintop Removal Mining?

Author

Listed:
  • A. K. Salm

    (Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA
    Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Laboratory Medicine, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA)

  • Michael J. Benson

    (Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA)

Abstract

Atmospheric particulate matter (PM) is elevated in areas of mountaintop removal mining (MTM), a practice that has been ongoing in some counties of West Virginia (WV) USA since the 1970s. PM inhalation has been linked to central nervous system pathophysiology, including cognitive decline and dementia. Here we compared county dementia mortality statistics in MTM vs. non-MTM WV counties over a period spanning 2001–2015. We found significantly elevated age-adjusted vascular or unspecified dementia mortality/100,000 population in WV MTM counties where, after adjusting for socioeconomic variables, dementia mortality was 15.60 (±3.14 Standard Error of the Mean (S.E.M.)) times higher than that of non-MTM counties. Further analyses with satellite imaging data revealed a highly significant positive correlation between the number of distinct mining sites vs. both mean and cumulative vascular and unspecified dementia mortality over the 15 year period. This was in contrast to finding only a weak relationship between dementia mortality rates and the overall square kilometers mined. No effect of living in an MTM county was found for the rate of Alzheimer’s type dementia and possible reasons for this are considered. Based on these results, and the current literature, we hypothesize that inhalation of PM associated with MTM contributes to dementia mortality of the vascular or unspecified types. However, limitations inherent in ecological-type studies such as this, preclude definitive extrapolation to individuals in MTM-counties at this time. We hope these findings will inspire follow-up cohort and case-controlled type studies to determine if specific causative factors associated with living near MTM can be identified. Given the need for caregiving and medical support, increased dementia mortality of the magnitude seen here could, unfortunately, place great demands upon MTM county public health resources in the future.

Suggested Citation

  • A. K. Salm & Michael J. Benson, 2019. "Increased Dementia Mortality in West Virginia Counties with Mountaintop Removal Mining?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(21), pages 1-21, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4278-:d:283342
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4278/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4278/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Zullig, K.J. & Hendryx, M., 2011. "Health-related quality of life among central appalachian residents in mountaintop mining counties," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(5), pages 848-853.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mariana Oliveira & André Padrão & André Ramalho & Mariana Lobo & Ana Cláudia Teodoro & Hernâni Gonçalves & Alberto Freitas, 2020. "Geospatial Analysis of Environmental Atmospheric Risk Factors in Neurodegenerative Diseases: A Systematic Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(22), pages 1-25, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Miguel Clemente & Zara Elena Diaz & Pablo Espinosa, 2021. "Differential Child Perceptions of the Parents’ Care and Concerns as a Custody Measure: the Children’s Preference Scale (CPS)," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 14(3), pages 1089-1104, June.
    2. Cebula, Richard J., 2022. "Coal Mining, Health, and Morbidity: A Brief Overview of the Empirical Scholarly Literature from a Regional Science Perspective," Journal of Regional Analysis and Policy, Mid-Continent Regional Science Association, vol. 52(1), October.
    3. Surber, Sarah J. & Simonton, D. Scott, 2017. "Disparate impacts of coal mining and reclamation concerns for West Virginia and central Appalachia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-8.
    4. Sarah J. Surber, 2021. "A conceptual model for integrating community health in managing remediation of West Virginia and central Appalachia’s abandoned coal mines," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 1563-1578, February.
    5. Kerry Ard & Cynthia Colen & Marisol Becerra & Thelma Velez, 2016. "Two Mechanisms: The Role of Social Capital and Industrial Pollution Exposure in Explaining Racial Disparities in Self-Rated Health," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-16, October.
    6. Mashudu D. Mbedzi & Huibrecht M. Van der Poll & John A. Van der Poll, 2018. "An Information Framework for Facilitating Cost Saving of Environmental Impacts in the Coal Mining Industry in South Africa," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-20, May.
    7. Manik Ahuja & Hadii M. Mamudu & Florence M. Weierbach & Karilynn Dowling-McClay & David W. Stewart & Manul Awasthi & Timir K. Paul, 2021. "Perceptions of risk for COVID-19 among individuals with chronic diseases and stakeholders in Central Appalachia," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-6, December.
    8. Collins, Alan R. & Hansen, Evan & Hendryx, Michael, 2012. "Wind versus coal: Comparing the local economic impacts of energy resource development in Appalachia," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 551-561.
    9. Mueller, Rose M., 2022. "Surface coal mining and public health disparities: Evidence from Appalachia," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4278-:d:283342. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.