Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Lung Cancer Mortality Is Elevated In Coal Mining Areas Of Appalachia, Michael Hendryx, Kathryn O'Donnell, Kimberly Horn

Regional Research Institute Working Papers

Previous research has documented increased lung cancer incidence and mortality in Appalachia. The current study tests whether residence in coal mining areas of Appalachia is a contributing factor. We conducted a national county-level analysis to identify contributions of smoking rates, socioeconomic variables, coal mining intensity and other variables to age-adjusted lung cancer mortality. Results demonstrate that lung cancer mortality for the years 2000-2004 is higher in areas of heavy Appalachian coal mining after adjustments for smoking, poverty, education, age, sex, race and other covariates. Higher mortality may be the result of exposure to environmental contaminates associated with the coal mining …