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By: Laura Flanders on May 7, 2013 – 8:51 AM ET
Investigators are blaming ammonium nitrate for the massive explosion that devastated most of the town of West, Texas, on April 17. The chemical, which was stored in large amounts at the West Fertilizer Co., is used to make fertilizer. It’s also used by coal companies to blow up mountains.
GRITtv was in Central Appalachia the week after the Boston Marathon bombing and the West, Texas, fire. While terrorism of the bomb-plots sort seemed far away. So explosions there were a daily occurance. Vernon Haltom of Coal Mountain River Watch, who showed us around. For he cited estimates that more than a million acres and tens of thousands of streams. All have been affected since so-called mountain top removal began. Having depleted the area’s rich underground seams. All since the late 1970s. Yes coal companies in Central Appalachia. For they began blasting the tops of the mountains to get at coal just beneath the surface.
Since then, more than twenty peer-reviewed studies have raised alarms. That’s some linking trace amounts of ammonium nitrate, benzine and silica to health problems. Also including low birth weights. Finally and elevated death rates in mining areas. Such as Virginia, West Virginia and also Kentucky.
For the entire story from The Nation
Photo Source Credit: GRITtv.
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