Administration Pumps Brakes On Study About Public Health Risks Of Coal Mining
“Mountaintop removal mining has been shown to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other medical problems,” said Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) “Stopping this study is a ploy to stop science in its tracks and keep the public in the dark about health risks as a favor to the mining industry, pure and simple.”
The New York Times:
Coal Mining Health Study Is Halted By Interior Department
The Interior Department has ordered a halt to a scientific study begun under President Obama of the public health risks of mountaintop-removal coal mining. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which was conducting the study, said in a statement Monday that they were ordered to stop work because the Interior Department is conducting an agencywide budgetary review. (Friedman and Plumer, 8/21)
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Halted A Study Of Mountaintop Coal Mining’s Health Effects
A statement by the academy said Interior’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement dispatched a letter Friday telling it to cease all work by an 11-member committee undertaking the study pending a departmental review of projects costing more than $100,000. The review was prompted “largely as a result of the Department’s changing budget situation,” the statement said. (Fears, 8/21)
In other environmental health news —
Reveal:
EPA Budget Cuts Threaten To Slow Uranium Cleanup At Navajo Nation
Dangerous remnants of the region’s Cold War boom, more than 500 uranium mines were abandoned on and near the Navajo reservation, now home to about 175,000 people. Thousands of families like Hood’s unwittingly used water from contaminated wells and springs to drink, bathe, hydrate their livestock and irrigate their gardens. (Spanne, 8/21)
