%0 Journal Article
%T Associations of the Burden of Coal Abandoned Mine Lands with Three Dimensions of Community Context in Pennsylvania
%A Ann Y. Liu
%A Frank C. Curriero
%A Thomas A. Glass
%A Walter F. Stewart
%A Brian S. Schwartz
%J ISRN Public Health
%D 2012
%R 10.5402/2012/251201
%X Background. Pennsylvania, with thousands of abandoned coal mines and miles of streams polluted with acid mine drainage, has the largest domestic coal mining burden contributing to deterioration of communities. Objectives. To evaluate contextual aspects by examining associations between coal abandoned mine lands (AML) and community measures of socioeconomic deprivation, social disorganization, and physical disorder. Methods. AML exposure data from the Reclaimed Abandoned Mine Land Inventory System were used to create density, diversity, accessibility, and clustering metrics. The three community context outcome measures were comprised of 14 census variables. In community-level analyses, 10 AML variables were evaluated separately with each dimension of community context, adjusting for covariates, in communities with and without abandoned mines. Results. We observed consistent associations between higher AML burden and worse socioeconomic deprivation, negative relations with social disorganization, but no statistically significant associations with physical disorder. Six of 10 AML variables were associated with socioeconomic deprivation, many consistently exhibiting exposure-effect patterns of worse deprivation with greater AML. Conclusions. Higher AML was associated with higher socioeconomic deprivation. These results can help prioritize the use of Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act funds and inform decisions regarding Marcellus shale drilling to prevent analogous environmental degradation and public health impacts. 1. Introduction Pennsylvania has long been a witness to the negative impacts of energy fuel extraction industries. The quest for fossil fuels began in 1761 with coal mining, followed by petroleum drilling in 1859, and now a growing and controversial interest in natural gas drilling from shale [1]. An extensive history of coal mining has left the state with the worst legacy of scarred and contaminated landscapes in the USA [2, 3]. These vast expanses of coal abandoned mine lands (AMLs) encompass terrestrial or aquatic sites of ore or mineral extraction, beneficiation, or processing, and waste deposit locations [2]. Although the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act (SMCRA) of 1977 established a fund to reclaim coal mines abandoned prior to the statute, relatively little scientific evidence was used for priority classifications of sites based on public health protection [4]. The settings in which people live and work influence health [5, 6]. Characteristics of communities that are external to the individual have important
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/isrn.public.health/2012/251201/