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Clint King
English 101-104
Professor Harper
3-May-15
Appalachian Coal: the Cure or the Disease
The Appalachian Mountains, is one of the oldest settled regions in America. It is a large
area covering land from the top of New York
State all the way down to Mississippi and
home to about 25 million people. Yet, it
remains historically one of the poorest
regions within the States, despite its vast
coverage and wealth of natural resources,
land, and people living here. But with the discovery of coal and introduction therefor of coal
mining, many people saw this as a new opportunity from poverty. Although it has created some
jobs and brought money into the region, coal has created something much worse than people
may see. Coal in fact has created some very negative effects on the region as a whole creating a
dependency on coal and the industry, encouraging low education standards, and destroying the
health of many people within the coal mines. Thus it has created serious problems for the people
living within the Appalachians and not much has been done to research or change these
problems.

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Throughout the years coal has been the main pillar of support for many families within
the Appalachians. Some even believe that there is still hope for coal as a support for the region,
to help grow the region economically by creating new jobs and helping to develop the region
with the income it could provide. According to Dr. Berger, who is the director of the Center for
Business and Economic Research for the University of Kentucky, The Center of Business and
Economic Research. This group does research for the Kentucky area, which forces on human
resources, economic development and forecasting, public finance, and health economics.
For many years, the coal industry has provided high-paying jobs to thousands of miners
and other workers and has indirectly supported jobs at other businesses that are needed to
supply the coal mining industry. Indeed, the coal mining industry represents a significant,
and many times, majority, share of the economy for many counties in the Appalachian
region (22).
With this comment Dr. Berger argues that large group of miners working the coal mines has also
supported the creation of other jobs within their area, but more importantly will be able to create
stable and strong economies within the region. Dr. Berger seems to have hope for region being
that with such a large focus on coal mining isnt an issue but in fact a strong foundation of the
economy of the Appalachians, and will, in the future, be the driving force in rebuilding the
damaged economy.
But the only problem with this view is that coal mining has been a part of the area for a
very long time, in fact entrenched in the area. So why has the economy still suffered after so
much time has gone by. It may change sometime within the future, but if we look at history, and

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if things continue with no effort put into a program to help the effected region it will never be
able to fix the underlying problem.

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One of the main causes of the economic short comings of the Appalachians is the fact that
although there is a monstrous industry in coal, but that seems to be it, with no other prevalent
industries within the region other than those found within the huge population centers in the area,
Pittsburgh for example. Another problem facing the
people and the region as a whole is the fact that with
an over reliance on one industry is return of college
graduates back to the area for job opportunities.
Baumann, a teacher at the College of the Holy
Cross, and who teaches several classes in
Economics who has earned his Ph.D. in Economics, from the University of Ohio in 2003, and
who has written on several other papers in relation to the results of events on different industries
throughout the U.S. Baumann states that, During the 1980s, the combined effects of rising
returns to a college degree and slower educational attainment increased the wage gap by nearly
three log points. (439). So Baumanns point is that during that time period that the less people
going out from the Appalachians and getting a college degree along with the fact that college
graduates help benefit the area they go to started to create a gap in the wages between the
national average and the wage average in the Appalachia region. Even some states are starting to
notice that their deadly dependency on coal is no longer healthy for both its people and for the
states themselves. A report done by Downstream Strategies and along with the West Virginia
Center of Budget and policy, talks of how coal does provide thousands of jobs and money to both
local and state governments, it is in fact not as much may think, and it actually costing the state
more money than the state makes from its taxes on it (Boettner 10).

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Next is the problem of education within the Appalachians, with many people being just
above or in the poverty line to these
families have a harder time to send their
children to go and get a higher degree of
learning. Another point to bring up is the
fact is for those who do manage to get a
college degree, often dont come back to
their Appalachians home in search of
jobs, because of the lack of diversity in
the job markets around their home. This when paired with the fact that the rest of the nation is
embracing the idea of going to college after high school, and the slow rate of college degrees that
come from this region has hurt the area (Brumann). Jack Weller wrote a book on his experiences
during his time in the Appalachias, and he goes on to say It [working] was a necessity. He did
not plan to enter a particular kind of occupation because he liked it- he worked at whatever there
was to do because he had to make a living. (102-103). Weller had graduated at the University of
Rochester in 1945 earning his B.A., then continuing his study at Union Theological Seminary
getting his B.D. in 1948. The book is based on his experiences and thoughts of the people during
his stay, making it a primary source of the region, but the book is very old being published in
1965 about 5 years before many studies of the region begin to take place. Even if it is somewhat
outdated, the book does offer some good insight the mindset of the people and their opinion of
higher learning where many people living here saw that higher education was something that was
not needed. That one could go into the mines and earn a pretty decent living with little
experience and make a living, and thats all that mattered to most people according to Weller.

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One of the last effects of the coal on people, and probably one of them is important part is
the health of those working in and those who live around coal mines. With the region has been
prone to more chronic illnesses from a variety of different factors. As with coal miners, they face
health risks such as black lung disease, lung cancer, and the risk of serious injury within the
mines themselves from muscle to back problems from heavy lifting to collapses within the
mines. Then there is also the issue of poverty with the illnesses to where that many diseases from
cancers, heart disease, and other chronic illness have become a problem within the region
because of lack of money, lack of education, and because of possible environmental issues found
within these coal mine areas (Hendryx). Within the same report, Hendryx goes on to state:
Coal mining regions have higher unemployment and poverty rates compared with the
rest of Appalachia or the nation, and this economic disadvantage appears to be a
contributing factor to the poor health of the region's population. Areas with especially
heavy mining have the highest unemployment rates in the region, contrary to the common
perception that mining contributes to overall employment.
Basically Hendryx is trying to say is, that the over reliance on the coal industry has created a
higher employment rate for the coal industry in certain areas then compared to the rest of the
nation, and which has negative effect on the health of those living there. He even goes on the
address that many people find that the coal industry is helping the region as a whole by helping
lower the unemployment rate, which as Hendryx said is a myth. That is because those who work
in these mines may have some money so that those people may have other factors on their health
such as poor food, lack of savings for some illnesses like cancer or lung disease, or the fact that
many of these coal miners are very weary of going to the doctors and may see that as something

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to take them out of working. All these factors combine to create a lower protection against these
diseases and help keep rates high in these areas.
Coal and the Appalachia Mountains, they seem to go hand in hand, being one of the most
abundant natural resource of the region for an extensive amount of time. Yet despite the
relationship between the two, it should be noted that coal mining is not in fact a benefit to the
area in several ways. Coal to many of the locals throughout the area see coal as a good job and as
a way to put bread on the table. That coal is the very life blood of many people and many towns
throughout the Appalachians and to keep mining coal is necessary for a self-reliant life free of
where the next check is to come from. But in fact coal has lead the area to some very severe
problems in many places, it has created a dependency on the coal industry as a way to provide
for both families working in them, and also for the state and local governments that the coal
mines operate within. It also has created low education returns by having young kids rely on
getting a no experience job with the coal mines, or for those few that actually go to college,
creating an environment with lack luster job industries within their Appalachian homes so that
they dont return to their communities and give the benefits of their education back to the
community and help build and strengthen the region, and lastly is has some adverse effects on
the people who call the Appalachians home with their poverty they have a harder time getting
treatment for their illness and the coal mines added with the pollution from the coal mines have
both had a negative effect on the lifespan of the coal miner and his family. So more needs to be
done to help recover the area, with new programs and more research to be done on the people
and region as a whole to help better inform those around the nation to better understand what
needs and what should be done to come and help the Appalachian region.

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Works Cited
Baumann, Robert. "Changes In The Appalachian Wage Gap, 1970 To 2000." Growth &
Change 37.3 (2006): 416-443.Academic Search Premier. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
Thompson, Eric C., Dr., et al. "A Study on the Current Economic Impacts of the
Appalachian Coal Industry and its Future in the Region." Editorial.
http://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/
CurrentEconomicImpactsofAppalachianCoalIndustry.pdf. Ed. Mark C.
Berger, Dr. Center for Business and Economic Research Gatton College of
Business and Economics U of Kentucky, 27 Mar. 2001. Web. 15 Mar. 2015.
<http://www.arc.gov/assets/research_reports/
CurrentEconomicImpactsofAppalachianCoalIndustry.pdf>.
Hendryx, Michael, and Melissa M. Ahern. "Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining
Region: The Value of Statistical Life Lost." Public Health Reports 124(4)
(2009): n. pag. PubMed Central. Web. 30 Mar. 2015
Weller, Jack E. Yesterday's People. Lexington: U of Kentucky P, 1965. Print.
West Virginia State. West Virgina Center on Budget and Policy. The Impact of
Coal on the West Virginia State Budget. By Rory McIlmoil et al. N.p.: West
Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, 2010. Print.
<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2693168/>.