A mile of a mountaintop removal mining site
Researchers at West Virginia University have shown that mining dust within a mile of a mountaintop removal mining site can cause human lung cells to adopt cancerlike properties, CEN reports.
Mountaintop mining is used to uncover and remove coal seams trapped deep in the mountains. This method is quite common in Appalachia, a region of the United States that stretches from northern Alabama, Mississippi and Georgia to the southern tier of New York. Major cities in Appalachia include: Pittsburgh, Knoxville, Tenn., Chattanooga, Tenn., and Asheville, N.C. According to the 2010 census, about 25 million people call this region of the United States home.
People who live or work near mines have a greater prevelance of lung cancer than the general population. Scientists have long hypothesized that mining dust can cause cancer but have only now shown it experimentally.
Sudjit Luanpitpong, Yon Rojanasakul and collegues ran a study where they collected samples via air over several weeks from two homes within a mile of an active mountaintop removal site in West Virginia. Samples were also collected from homes where mining activity does not occur.
Particulates from these samples were analyzed for their composition with scanning electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The researchers cultured human lung cells and exposed them to a nonlethal dose of particualtes from the two sites, mining or nonmining, for three months.