Could Pennsylvania's Polycythemia Vera Epidemic Be Linked to Waste-Coal Burning?
Like many people in the Hometown area, I have been puzzling over the unusually high number of polycythemia vera cases reported among local residents. Seeking clues, I recently contacted the Pennsylvania Department of Health and requested their statewide data on polycythemia vera cases reported to the cancer registry*.
My analysis of that data suggests a possible association between the rare blood cancer and power plants that burn culm and gob, the waste produced by anthracite and bituminous coal processing operations. I discovered that populous Pennsylvania counties with the highest incidence rate of polycythemia vera -- at least double the state's rate -- tend to be located near such plants.
Using PADOH's count of reported polycythemia vera cases by county for 2001 through 2003, I calculated the general incidence rate over that period for each county by dividing the total number of cases in the county by the county population according to 2000 census data. I excluded from my analysis those counties with populations of less than 100,000, since a difference of one or two cases there would skew the rate dramatically.
In the thirty-odd counties I considered, there were four -- Schuylkill, Luzerne, Cambria and Blair -- that had a polycythemia incidence rate that was more than double the state's rate. And Pennsylvania's polycythemia rate is already elevated compared to the nation's, according to a June 2006 information sheet from PADOH and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry distributed as part of the agencies' controversial program to educate local physicians about the disease. (The program was an outgrowth of PADOH's local cancer study released earlier this year.) Titled "Health Professional Update: Tamaqua Area Environmental Community Health Concerns," the information sheet states:
That means Pennsylvania's polycythemia vera rate is somewhere between nine and 23 times the nation's rate.
Why is there so much polycythemia vera in Pennsylvania?
My initial hypothesis was that the elevated incidence rate might be related to the Three Mile Island disaster, since researchers have linked polycythemia vera to radiation exposure. I made a map of Pennsylvania showing counties with elevated (as well as lower-than-expected) polycythemia vera rates. But as it turns out, the counties immediately downwind of TMI don't show a higher incidence rate of polycythemia vera. And neither do the counties downwind of the state's five nuclear power plants, another potential source of radiation exposure.
So then I decided to look at the disease's distribution in relation to the state's waste-coal plants. Of the 18 such plants currently operating in the United States, 14 are in Pennsylvania, and five are in Schuylkill County, which has more than any other county in the nation, according to the Energy Justice Network. Northeast Schuylkill's Ben Titus Road community -- where the Army for a Clean Environment has counted as many as eight cases of polycythemia -- is next to Northeastern Power Co., a co-generation plant that burns culm as its primary fuel and diesel or fuel oil as a secondary fuel, according to EJN.
After marking the waste-coal facilities on my map, I immediately saw a pattern: Of the 10 waste-coal power plants located in the 33 Pennsylvania counties with populations big enough to figure into my analysis, nine were in -- or right on the border of -- the four counties with the most dramatically elevated polycythemia vera rates (click on small map for readable image):
Burning waste coal releases a large amount of toxic pollutants to the environment, including hydrochloric acid, a suspected immunotoxicant; lead, a recognized carcinogen and suspected blood toxicant; manganese, a suspected liver and nerve toxicant; and mercury, a suspected blood toxicant. Pennsylvania gob has 3.5 times more mercury than bituminous coal, while culm has 19 percent more mercury than anthracite, according to EJN.
Waste-coal plants also emit polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are suspected carcinogens and blood toxicants, as well as so-called "products of incomplete combustion," the potential toxicity of which is uncertain.
As I noted, Schuylkill County is home to five such waste-coal plants: NEPCO; Gilberton Power in Frackville, which also reportedly burns a mix of culm and diesel or fuel oil; Schuylkill Energy Resource's St. Nicholas cogen near Shenandoah, which burns culm; Waste Management's Wheelabrator plant near Frackville, which burns culm and diesel or fuel oil; and WPS Westwood Generation plant near Tremont, another culm and diesel or fuel oil facility. In 2001 alone, those five plants combined released more than 139,000 pounds of toxins to the air and another 937,000 pounds to landfills -- in many cases, nearby abandoned mine pits that drain into the area's groundwater and streams. (For EJN's list of waste-coal-ash landfills, click here.)
NEPCO sits on the border of Luzerne County, which is also home to another waste-coal-burning plant -- the Hunlock Power Station west of Nanticoke. That facility burns anthracite coal as its primary fuel and culm as a secondary fuel. In the south-central part of the state, Cambria County has three waste-coal facilities: Cambria Cogen and Ebensburg Power, gob-burning plants in Ebensburg, and the Colver Power Project in Colver, which also burns gob. The Ebensburg facilities are located about 10 west of the Blair County border.
I am not claiming that waste-coal-burning plants are causing polycythemia vera. I recognize that an association between two phenomena is not the same thing as a causal relationship. Other factors may be at play, and I welcome feedback from anyone who has thoughts on what it those might be. But given Pennsylvania's unusually high rate of polycythemia vera, and the striking distribution pattern I found through my mapping effort, it seems that the public health authorities need to look at what sort of impact these facilities are having on local communities' health.
* A message from PADOH: "These data were provided by the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Department specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions."
My analysis of that data suggests a possible association between the rare blood cancer and power plants that burn culm and gob, the waste produced by anthracite and bituminous coal processing operations. I discovered that populous Pennsylvania counties with the highest incidence rate of polycythemia vera -- at least double the state's rate -- tend to be located near such plants.
Using PADOH's count of reported polycythemia vera cases by county for 2001 through 2003, I calculated the general incidence rate over that period for each county by dividing the total number of cases in the county by the county population according to 2000 census data. I excluded from my analysis those counties with populations of less than 100,000, since a difference of one or two cases there would skew the rate dramatically.
In the thirty-odd counties I considered, there were four -- Schuylkill, Luzerne, Cambria and Blair -- that had a polycythemia incidence rate that was more than double the state's rate. And Pennsylvania's polycythemia rate is already elevated compared to the nation's, according to a June 2006 information sheet from PADOH and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry distributed as part of the agencies' controversial program to educate local physicians about the disease. (The program was an outgrowth of PADOH's local cancer study released earlier this year.) Titled "Health Professional Update: Tamaqua Area Environmental Community Health Concerns," the information sheet states:
"The incident rate nationally is between 0.6 - 1.6 cases per million people. In Pennsylvania for the years 2001 and 2002, there were 14 cases per million people."
That means Pennsylvania's polycythemia vera rate is somewhere between nine and 23 times the nation's rate.
Why is there so much polycythemia vera in Pennsylvania?
My initial hypothesis was that the elevated incidence rate might be related to the Three Mile Island disaster, since researchers have linked polycythemia vera to radiation exposure. I made a map of Pennsylvania showing counties with elevated (as well as lower-than-expected) polycythemia vera rates. But as it turns out, the counties immediately downwind of TMI don't show a higher incidence rate of polycythemia vera. And neither do the counties downwind of the state's five nuclear power plants, another potential source of radiation exposure.
So then I decided to look at the disease's distribution in relation to the state's waste-coal plants. Of the 18 such plants currently operating in the United States, 14 are in Pennsylvania, and five are in Schuylkill County, which has more than any other county in the nation, according to the Energy Justice Network. Northeast Schuylkill's Ben Titus Road community -- where the Army for a Clean Environment has counted as many as eight cases of polycythemia -- is next to Northeastern Power Co., a co-generation plant that burns culm as its primary fuel and diesel or fuel oil as a secondary fuel, according to EJN.
After marking the waste-coal facilities on my map, I immediately saw a pattern: Of the 10 waste-coal power plants located in the 33 Pennsylvania counties with populations big enough to figure into my analysis, nine were in -- or right on the border of -- the four counties with the most dramatically elevated polycythemia vera rates (click on small map for readable image):
Burning waste coal releases a large amount of toxic pollutants to the environment, including hydrochloric acid, a suspected immunotoxicant; lead, a recognized carcinogen and suspected blood toxicant; manganese, a suspected liver and nerve toxicant; and mercury, a suspected blood toxicant. Pennsylvania gob has 3.5 times more mercury than bituminous coal, while culm has 19 percent more mercury than anthracite, according to EJN.
Waste-coal plants also emit polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which are suspected carcinogens and blood toxicants, as well as so-called "products of incomplete combustion," the potential toxicity of which is uncertain.
As I noted, Schuylkill County is home to five such waste-coal plants: NEPCO; Gilberton Power in Frackville, which also reportedly burns a mix of culm and diesel or fuel oil; Schuylkill Energy Resource's St. Nicholas cogen near Shenandoah, which burns culm; Waste Management's Wheelabrator plant near Frackville, which burns culm and diesel or fuel oil; and WPS Westwood Generation plant near Tremont, another culm and diesel or fuel oil facility. In 2001 alone, those five plants combined released more than 139,000 pounds of toxins to the air and another 937,000 pounds to landfills -- in many cases, nearby abandoned mine pits that drain into the area's groundwater and streams. (For EJN's list of waste-coal-ash landfills, click here.)
NEPCO sits on the border of Luzerne County, which is also home to another waste-coal-burning plant -- the Hunlock Power Station west of Nanticoke. That facility burns anthracite coal as its primary fuel and culm as a secondary fuel. In the south-central part of the state, Cambria County has three waste-coal facilities: Cambria Cogen and Ebensburg Power, gob-burning plants in Ebensburg, and the Colver Power Project in Colver, which also burns gob. The Ebensburg facilities are located about 10 west of the Blair County border.
I am not claiming that waste-coal-burning plants are causing polycythemia vera. I recognize that an association between two phenomena is not the same thing as a causal relationship. Other factors may be at play, and I welcome feedback from anyone who has thoughts on what it those might be. But given Pennsylvania's unusually high rate of polycythemia vera, and the striking distribution pattern I found through my mapping effort, it seems that the public health authorities need to look at what sort of impact these facilities are having on local communities' health.
* A message from PADOH: "These data were provided by the Bureau of Health Statistics and Research, Pennsylvania Department of Health. The Department specifically disclaims responsibility for any analyses, interpretations or conclusions."
posted by Sue Sturgis at
1:57 PM
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