----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Tim Guilfoile <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Wed, April 21, 2010 2:34:19 PM
Subject: [WATER-ISSUES] Fwd: fyi -- New study links stream quality and human cancer rates


April 21, 2010

New study links stream quality and human cancer rates

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – A new study demonstrates that the health of
streams can help predict human health in nearby areas. This research
provides a new screening tool for human cancer in Appalachia and
demonstrates the importance of environmental quality for public
health.

The first-of-its-kind study, published this month in the peer-reviewed
journal “EcoHealth,” evaluated the relationship between human cancer
mortality rates and the organisms that live in streams known as
benthic macroinvertebrates. This study provides the first
peer-reviewed analysis of the relationship between stream ecosystem
integrity and human health.

The authors of the study, Nathaniel Hitt, Ph.D., of Virginia Tech, and
Michael Hendryx, Ph.D., of West Virginia University, used data from
state and federal databases to compare stream quality and cancer rates
in West Virginia. They observed the highest cancer rates in areas with
the most biologically-impoverished streams and vice versa. They also
observed that streams provided information about public health above
and beyond known risk factors including smoking, poverty and
urbanization.

“Our research shows the importance of streams for people,” Dr. Hitt
said. “We learned that some of the smallest organisms living in
streams can provide a warning system for one of the largest human
health problems, cancer.”

“We found that cancer rates are linked to environmental quality even
after accounting for other major risks such as smoking,” Dr. Hendryx
said. “Furthermore, we saw that the most impaired streams were in
close proximity to coal surface mines. This adds to the body of
evidence that coal mining is harmful to ecosystems and human health.”

This research required a new interdisciplinary collaboration. Dr.
Hendryx is an epidemiologist in the WVU Department of Community
Medicine. Dr. Hitt is a stream ecologist and conducted this research
with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife Sciences at Virginia
Tech. The combination of their diverse backgrounds enabled this
groundbreaking research.

“Regulation of coal mining is often portrayed as a choice between
‘mayflies and miners,’” Emily Bernhardt, Ph.D., assistant professor of
biology at Duke University, said. “However, this study shows how
streams are important for the health and welfare of miners and their
communities.”

“This paper really drives home the fact that it is not just streams
and stream animals that we are losing in the surface mining regions of
Appalachia, but also the health and well-being of women, children and
men,” Margaret Palmer, Ph.D., professor of entomology and biology at
the University of Maryland, said.

Colin Soskolne, Ph.D., associate editor of “EcoHealth” and professor
of public health and environmental epidemiologist at the University of
Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, said the approach taken by Hitt and
Hendryx exemplifies how innovative methods can improve the
understanding of the complex connections between environmental quality
and public health.

The study can be accessed online at http://bit.ly/9iwBtg


-WVU-

For More Information:
Angela Jones, HSC News Service, 304-293-7087
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-- 
Tim Guilfoile
Deputy Director
Sierra Club Water Sentinels
3078 Elmwood Dr.
Edgewood, KY 41017
(859) 426-1978
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