Mountaintop Removal is Killing People!!!
The Evidence is Coming In...

Child Protests Health Crisis Peer-reviewed studies are beginning to roll in that confirm what coalfield activists have suspected for a long time. That is, communities under the shadow of mountaintop removal have much higher rates of serious health impairment and morbidity.

Yes, mountaintop removal looks ugly. It drives out communities and their culture, degrades ecosystems, increases the liklihood of flooding, and the practice divides people. Yet there is worse. Mountaintop removal exudes toxic wastes into the air and water, and these wastes are killing people.

For the past several years, residents in areas with heavy mountaintop removal have been worried about the high numbers of friends and neighbors afflicted with cancer, asthma, kidney diseases, skin ailments, and other maladies. Deaths are mounting from cancer, including many who are in their early years of life. Government statistics now confirm the high rate of illnesses and deaths that correlate remarkably with local coal production. Studies are now ongoing to further diagnose the causality.

Maria Protests Health Crisis High rates of Birth Defects are now linked to Mountaintop Removal. A recent Peer-reviewed study concludes the correlation. Coal-fired power plants are already implicated as the highest emitter of mercury into the ecosystem, causing significant neurological damage to one in six babies. A nation with conscience cannot tolerate environmental pollution to "the least of these" (Matthew 25:31-46). Please urge your church to understand this as a crucial life issue!!!