Other diseases show up at higher rates
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Debbie and Curtis Havens look over the garden at their home near the Little Blue fly-ash dump in West Virginia. The Havens didn't harvest any of their vegetables from the garden, fearing the ground and water contamination from Little Blue. The Havens have lived in their home for 38 years; Mr. Havens has lost his thyroid to cancer and Ms. Havens suffers from asthma and other respiratory problems.
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Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, and the rest of southwestern Pennsylvania, show higher mortality rates for multiple sclerosis, while Allegheny County also has higher rates of mortality for various cancers when compared with state rates.
Scientific literature is sparse on links between multiple sclerosis and environmental exposure, but studies do suggest particulate pollution can trigger, aggravate or cause relapses of the autoimmune disease, with further research suggesting that increased incidence of other autoimmune diseases could be linked to indoor and outdoor environmental exposures.
Multiple sclerosis is a gene-based disease triggered by infection or viruses but also with potential for environmental triggers. The chronic disease leads to destruction of myelin -- the insulation around nerves -- which affects nerve signaling that can lead to numbness and impairments in speech, muscle control and coordination, vision and bladder control.
From 2000 through 2008, the age-adjusted death rate for multiple sclerosis in Allegheny County exceeded the state average by 40 percent, with 235 actual deaths compared with 168 expected deaths, based on state Department of Health mortality data.
The state database shows excess death rates for multiple sclerosis in Allegheny County for 2003 and from 2006 through 2008. Westmoreland County also experienced a 41 percent increase in MS deaths over the same nine-year period, with a total of 76 deaths compared with the expected state rate of 54.
For the 14-county area, the mortality rate for MS is 34 percent over expected state totals, with 482 actual deaths from 2000 through 2008, compared with an expected state death rate of 360.
"There certainly is an explanation somewhere. It's a matter of finding it," said Nicholas LaRocca, vice president of health-care delivery policy research at the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.
He said the state method of documenting MS deaths was important -- whether MS was listed as a contributor to or cause of death. Death certificates can be unreliable methods of verifying such deaths, he said.
More research is needed, Dr. LaRocca said, calling for a statewide registry of MS cases to help with research.
First Published December 16, 2010 12:00 am
