'Keeping an open mind to possible culprits'

I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the Lehighton Times-News in response to an article that looked at waste coal power plants as a possible factor behind the local polycythemia vera epidemic. That letter was published in today's paper. Here it is in its entirety (with a link added for the statistical analysis I mention):

November 10, 2007

Keeping an open mind to possible culprits

Dear Editor:

I appreciate the story in the Oct. 31 edition of your paper considering whether coal-fired power plants may be a factor behind the unusually high rate of polycythemia vera in Schuylkill and Luzerne counties ("Are coal fired plants the culprit?"). The story mentioned that I consider this possibility on my Hometown Hazards Web site (www.hometownhazards.com). However, it left out some information crucial for understanding why that is.

Last year, with the help of Dr. Samuel Lesko of the Northeast Regional Cancer Institute, I conducted a statistical analysis using state cancer registry data to examine PV rates across Pennsylvania to see if I could identify any commonalities among the counties where the rate of the cancer was particularly high. Looking only at those counties with populations greater than 100,000 (so as not to allow one or two cases in less populous places to dramatically skew the rate), I identified four counties with rates at least double the state's already-elevated rate: Schuylkill, Luzerne, Cambria and Blair.

I then considered what those four counties had in common that could possibly explain the high PV rates. Because despite Dr. Paul Roda's claims repeated in your article that "we do not have any specific evidence to say that exposure to any one chemical or environmental toxin causes polycythemia vera," we do in fact know from the medical literature that several environmental and occupational exposures have been associated with an excess risk of PV. They include working as an embalmer or funeral director (that is, exposure to formaldehyde and other solvents used in embalming solutions), benzene, petroleum refineries and low doses of radiation.

What significant potential sources of those pollutants did I find in those counties? Waste-coal burning power plants. Among various toxic pollutants, burning coal produces benzene and other aromatic hydrocarbons as well as low-level radiation, since coal contains uranium and other radioactive elements. Burning fossil fuels also produces formaldehyde.

Of the 18 waste-coal-burning power 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. Schuylkill County's Ben Titus Road community where local environmental advocates have counted more than a half-dozen cases of PV is adjacent to Northeastern Power Co. (NEPCO), which burns anthracite coal waste or "culm" as its primary fuel and diesel or fuel oil as a secondary fuel.

NEPCO sits on the border of Luzerne County, which is also home to the Hunlock Power Station near Nanticoke, a facility that 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 in Ebensburg, which burn bituminous waste coal or "gob," and the Colver Power Project in Colver, which also burns gob. The Ebensburg facilities are located near the border with Blair County, whose residents would consequently be subjected to the plants' air pollution.

To date, a great deal of attention has been paid by some to a possible link between the McAdoo Associates Superfund site and the unusual number of PV cases along Ben Titus Road (which for some reason the ATSDR was unable to confirm in its recent study, but that's a topic for another letter). Having grown up in nearby Hometown, I don't doubt for a minute that the McAdoo site has had a detrimental effect on the area's environmental health and may even play a role in the high local PV rates. However, it seems unlikely that the site is responsible for PV in western Schuylkill County or the Wilkes-Barre area, let alone Cambria County.

That's why I suspect the waste-coal-burning power plants may play a role in the area's PV epidemic. But as our work on these important questions moves forward, we of course should keep an open mind as to all the possible culprits behind Pennsylvania's environmental health crisis.

Sincerely,

Sue Sturgis

Raleigh, N.C.