Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost

20.10.12

Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost: SYNOPSIS Objectives. We examined elevated mortality rates in Appalachian coal miningareas for 1979–2005, and estimated the corresponding value of statistical life(VSL) lost relative to the economic benefits of the coal mining industry.Methods. We compared age-adjusted mortality rates and socioeconomic con-ditions across four county groups: Appalachia with high levels of coal mining,Appalachia with lower mining levels, Appalachia without coal mining, and othercounties in the nation. We converted mortality estimates to VSL estimates andcompared the results with the economic contribution of coal mining. We alsoconducted a discount analysis to estimate current benefits relative to futuremortality costs