His testimony opposed HR 1644, which would block the federal government from implementing stream-protection buffer rules and would affect mountaintop coal mining, according to an IU press release.
Mountaintop removal mining involves using explosives to loosen rock and dirt above the coal before draglines remove the rock and dirt, the displacement of which affects valleys and streams in the area. Thus, the water covered by the rock and soil carries contaminates including sulfates, metals and other chemicals.
“Our research has shown that people who live near mountaintop removal are at higher risk, compared to people living farther away, for a wide set of health problems,” Hendryx said in the release. “We see, for example, that rates of lung cancer are higher in mountaintop removal communities. We have also found higher death rates from heart disease, lung disease and kidney disease.”
Hendryx has worked with other researchers to publish 30 studies in peer-reviewed journals that detailed the environmental and health issues present in these Appalachian communities in which mountaintop mining takes place. He said the more important studies examined birth defects based on information from nearly 2 million birth records over an eight year period.
“We found that mothers who live in a mountaintop removal area during their pregnancy had significantly elevated risk of delivering a baby with a birth defect,” he said in the release. “One of the most common forms of birth defects is heart defects, and we found that mothers’ risk of a baby with a heart defect was 181 percent higher compared to mothers who did not live in mining areas.”
Researchers brought dust from both mining and non-mining communities into the lab and exposed lung cell lines to the dust in another study. Dust from the mining communities caused changes in the cells that indicated the development of lung cancer while the other dust did not.
Hendryx began his research while working at West Virginia University. He came to IU in 2013. He called for stronger rules and enforcement to prevent dumping waste into water. He claimed the bill was an “unnecessary delay and a threat to human health.”
Holly Hays
