Tag: Health

216 posts found, showing 20 per page

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Apr 2, 2014
Hey Women! Got Something To Say on Water Crisis?
Over the next two weeks, the Women and Water Campaign will host two “Women and Water Listening Sessions.” These sessions, happening on the heels of the WV Testing Assessment Project (WVTAP) Health Expert Panel and the recent debacle surrounding the dumping of MCHM in the Hurricane landfill More
Issues: Health, MCHM, Social justice

Newsletter OVEC Mar 8, 2014
Winds of Change, March 2014
Don’t drink the water. Don’t shower. Don’t cook with it or wash your clothes. There’s half a century gone. Gone most of us who went to Elk Grade School, gone, too. Gone the white frame homes, the small brick duplexes, the school we marched to for our polio shots. Gone the quick-tongued streams, gone the valleys, filled with mountaintop, gone from the fog-draped skyscape. It’s licorice scented air, not sun-dried cotton sheets, licorice wafting from the tap. More
Issues: Energy, Fracking, Health, Mountaintop removal, Pollution, Water

Hoots and Hollers Kerry Chad Albright Feb 4, 2014
Thoughts on the Chemical / Water Crisis from the Buffalo Creek Miracle Baby
This is possibly the slowest holocaust In history. It's actually quite brilliant. They've managed to put the gas chambers directly in your house. The best way to hide a chamber is by placing it in plain sight. We all know that from the hidden government bunkers at The Greenbrier Hotel. Unfortunately the site this time is your own home. More
Issues: Coal, Health

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Feb 4, 2014
McEntee’s Comments @ SB373 Public Hearing
On February 3, the WV Legislature held a public hearing on SB 373, a bill crafted in response to the MCHM chemical / water crisis still unfolding here in Central West Virginia. Below are the comments from one of the 50 people who spoke last night. More
Issues: Health, MCHM, Water, WV American Water

Hoots and Hollers Betty Dotson-Lewis Nov 10, 2013
Black Lung Victims, Sacrificial Lambs of Coalfields
A Center for Public Integrity reporter, Chris Hamby, conducted a yearlong investigation into the failed Black Lung Benefit package awarded to disabled coalminers in 1969 legislation. ABC News and Nightline aired a form of this three-part series revealing startling, unethical measures used to help defeat the miner and his widow in their weakest hour. These methods, driven by money from coal companies, involve the biggest and oldest law firm in West Virginia, Jackson- Kelly and a renowned medical center, John Hopkins University. Actions by these revered groups were clandestine and protected by politician and policy. More
Issues: Coal, Health, Pollution

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Nov 8, 2013
Keeper of the Mountains President Speaks Out on St. Mary’s and Unclean Coal
To encourage clean coal propaganda is to be complicit in the sickness, suffering and deaths of thousands of Appalachians. It is shameful for a hospital whose primary function should be the health of its community. More
Issues: Coal, Health, Mountaintop removal, Social justice

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Nov 7, 2013
Retired Miner Blasts St. Mary’s for Hosting Coal Lobby Group Head
By hosting the American Coalition for "Clean Coal" Electricity (ACCCE), St. Mary's Center of Education is promoting dirty energy that inflicts serious health impairments on the public. This mirrors what John Hopkins Medical Center is doing (or was doing until days ago when they were exposed)-- creating a major road block for miners with black lung, who are being denied their rightful benefits for a disease that is taking the lives of thousands of miners. More
Issues: Coal, Health, Mountaintop removal, Social justice

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Oct 28, 2013
ACHE Responds to Latest MTR Health Study
Major depression rates are 40% higher among residents living near mountaintop removal coal mining, according to a recent peer-reviewed study. This work adds to the growing body of evidence linking mountaintop removal to serious health impacts in Appalachia. Residents responded that the study further demonstrates an urgent need for the Appalachian Community Health Emergency (ACHE) Act, HR 526. More
Issues: Health, Mountaintop removal, Social justice

Hoots and Hollers OVEC Oct 24, 2013
Synopsis: Increased Risk of Depression for People Living in Coal Mining Areas of Central Appalachia
Main Points: Individuals residing in areas where mountaintop removal is practiced experienced significantly more poor mental health days. 36% of persons in mountain top removal areas were mildly depressed. 17% of persons in mountain top removal areas were moderately depressed. 7% of persons in mountain top removal areas were severely depressed. Overview Summary Study Background: […] More
Issues: Health, Mountaintop removal

Hoots and Hollers OVEC Oct 10, 2013
Synopsis: The Environmental Price Tag on a Ton of Mountaintop Removal Coal
Main Points: While several thousand square kilometers of land area have been subject to surface mining in the Central Appalachians, no reliable estimate exists for how much coal is produced per unit landscape disturbance. A one-year supply of coal would result in ∼2,300 km of stream impairment and a loss of ecosystem carbon sequestration capacity comparable to the global warming potential of >33,000 US homes. More
Issues: Climate change, Health, Mountaintop removal, Water

Newsletter OVEC Sep 3, 2013
Winds of Change, September 2013
On the lovely summer evening of July 26, about 80 OVEC members and supporters, many pictured above, gathered to picnic at Coonskin Park in Charleston, WV. We venture to say that everyone had fun, enjoying meeting friends old and new. Thanks to everyone who came out. More
Issues: DEP, Health, Mountaintop removal, Pollution, Water

Hoots and Hollers Vivian Aug 28, 2013
UnHoly Frack! Former WV DEP Head Now Chesapeake Mouthpiece
Last night I started watching Triple Divide, about deep shale gas fracking in Pennsylvania. I purchased a copy of the DVD from the Mountain Watershed Association last weekend, when I attended the No Fracking Way gathering. My dog looked at me funny when I yelled “What the frack!” at the TV. I was reacting to the voice of Chesapeake Energy’s director of federal affairs, a voice I recognized as belonging to Former DEP Secretary Stephanie Timmermeyer More
Issues: Fracking, Health, Marcellus Shale, Social justice

Hoots and Hollers Dustin White Apr 25, 2013
A Child’s World
     I stood behind the table watching the young girl study the images.  Her long dirty-blonde hair glistened in the sun and swayed in the chilly breeze.  She must have been around eleven or twelve.  She spoke softly to her younger brother.  He was about seven or eight but you could see his young […] More
Issues: Coal, EPA, Health, Mountaintop removal, Pollution, Social justice, Water

Hoots and Hollers OVEC Apr 18, 2013
The Health Impacts of Mountaintop Removal Mining
In 2011 a group of researchers from West Virginia University and Washington State University published a study on the association between exposure to mountaintop removal (MTR) mining and the increased rate of birth defects in Central Appalachia. More
Issues: Coal, Health, Mountaintop removal

Hoots and Hollers OVEC Apr 7, 2013
Synopsis: Personal and Family Health in Rural Areas of Kentucky With and Without Mountaintop Coal Mining
Main Points: Surface water emerging from MTM mining sites, or present in ground water proximate to mining, is characterized by elevated sulfates, iron, manganese, arsenic, selenium, hydrogen sulfide, lead, magnesium, calcium, and aluminum; pollutants severely damage aquatic stream life and persist for decades after mining at a particular site ceases. Airborne particulate matter around surface […] More
Issues: Health, Mountaintop removal