Considering the polycythemia vera - coal combustion waste dumping connection

The first graphic below, from the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's recent study on polycythemia vera in the Hometown area, shows the distribution of the cases of the rare blood cancer that agency researchers were able to confirm in Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties. The second graphic from the Pa. Department of Environmental Protection shows the statewide location of former mine sites where coal and waste coal ash dumping has occurred. Burning coal and waste coal produces ash contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which in turn cause the specific mutation associated with PV.