The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are moving forward with its study of the connection between surface mining and public health.  Its mission is to review the evidence and determine what effect large surface mining operations have upon the health of those living nearby.

The study committee had its first public meeting on March 7, 2017. That meeting was mostly about getting organized, defining the problem, etc. There is another meeting scheduled for July 11-12, 2017, at the National Academies Keck Center, 500 5th St. NW, Washington, DC 20001.  The meeting should be more substantive this time with testimony from experts, including Dr. Michael Hendryx (formerly of West Virginia University) and Raual Gupta of the West Virginia Bureau of Public Health.

If you want to go, you have to RSVP to Remy Chappetta at rchappetta@nas.edu by Friday, July 7.

You can also watch it on your computer.  Go to

https://nationalacademies.webex.com/nationalacademies/j.php?MTID=m992cc149bc42c86df274b5ac35ba814c.

For a little more background on the study and how it came about, see the stories in the September, 2016, and April, 2017, issues of The Highlands Voice.

If you want to sign up for email updates go to http://dels.nas.edu/Study-In-Progress/Potential-Human-Health-Effects-Surface/DELS-BESR-16-03?bname=besr.

For additional information, go to

https://www8.nationalacademies.org/cp/projectview.aspx?key=49846

The project is supposed to take 24 months from when it began in March, 2017.

Editor’s Note:  I realize that for the majority of our readers, who get the Voice in real, on paper, form, this notice is too late.  It is here because we now have several hundred members who read the Voice on line and might wish to go or watch the proceedings.