The Williamson Health and Wellness Center will receive $200,000 from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin announced the funding on Tuesday.
The money is designated for enhancing psychological and social health care services for people with diabetes, congestive heart failure and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
The goal of the Rural Health Care Coordination Network Partnership Program is to provide more effective care for rural patients living with chronic conditions by integrating behavioral health care into primary care.
Senate Bill 30 permits a shared animal ownership agreement to consume raw milk. Currently in the state, it is illegal to purchase or sell raw milk. And just like when it was debated in the Senate, some members of the House also questioned the health effects of drinking raw milk, while others maintained it allows for personal freedom.
Senate Bill 30 would allow two parties to have a written agreement saying they would share ownership of a milk producing animal and that milk would be used for consumption. The bill would also require the Department of Agriculture to be aware of the agreement, and the seller would have to meet state standards from a licensed veterinarian. If an illness would occur after consuming raw milk, those persons in the agreement would have to report the illness to their local health department.
Debate erupted on the House floor as health risks and freedoms were discussed.
Delegate Nancy Guthrie of Kanawha County opposed the bill because she worried it would reintroduce diseases like polio and others.
“When I look at this bill,” Guthrie said, “and I realize that we could’ve taken one more preventative measure by just saying to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Health and Human Services, while we recognize that agriculture is in a growing industry in our state, we need to be very careful about maybe reintroducing E.coli, maybe reintroducing polio, maybe reintroducing some of the diseases that have been associated with non-pasteurized milk over the years. Let them have joint custody on writing the rules.”
Delegate Jim Morgan of Cabell County says he used to own a dairy farm and questioned the cleanliness of those parties selling raw milk.
“That was a difficult job keeping that sterilized, clean, and the Kanwaha, Charleston Health Department examined our farm every two weeks. I just don’t understand why somebody who maybe thinks that a nice cow giving milk is going to be better than buying it pasteurized off the shelf,” said Morgan, “If you have seen farming conditions other than the ones under the, subject to health department rules, and I understand they’re some rules in this. I feel that it’s a step backwards in public health, and that for those conditions to be met is going to be very difficult, and when you go to the farm to visit your cows, be sure to look at their utter and be sure it’s clean.”
Delegate Lynne Arvon of Raleigh County supported the bill and argued it would not require retailers to sell raw milk, only two consenting parties with an animal that produced milk.
“I think people need to remember, this bill is not about selling raw milk. This is about people owning their own cows, their own goats and using the milk from those cows and goats,” Arvon noted, “I think they have the right to use those animals as they choose. We talk about freedom; that is freedom. We’re not selling it to anyone else, although personally I think they should be able to do that. If people want to buy raw milk, they should be able to buy raw milk. And I’ll use the example I spoke about in Health committee. Alcohol. How many deaths can we relate to alcohol? I can’t even count. How about to raw milk? I know one in twenty-five years. So are we gonna ban alcohol? I think not.”
Delegate Kelli Sobonya of Cabell County also supported the bill and says there are more deaths related to foodborne illnesses than from raw milk.
“There are ten million people in America that consume raw milk. Ten million people,” Sobonya said, “We haven’t heard a big problem that people are out there dying, but yet there are millions and millions of foodborne illnesses in America, due to cantaloupe, three-hundred people were hospitalized for candied apples. We haven’t outlawed candied apples for the consumption of children. Seven people died in 2015 from candied apples, and three-hundred were sickened.”
Delegate Matthew Rohrbach of Cabell County says he will support the bill, but only because he thinks it’s an attempt to regulate something that has the potential to be harmful.
“I think we have to be realistic that raw milk is being sold, and we’re not regulating it,” Rohrbach noted, “I think this bill is an attempt to regulate a cottage industry that is going on, and if it does get some oversight over the herds, begrudgingly I can support this bill, but I’m gonna rise to tell the members that we’re gonna have some tough debates this week about some issues of public health, and the people of this state depend on a hundred people sitting here to make decisions for their health and well-being, and I urge you not to go backward.”
During January’s West Virginia Board of Education meeting, the Board voted to withdraw a controversial new policy that addresses how science teachers should teach climate change to public school students.
Last December, at the request of West Virginia Board of Education Member Wade Linger, the board proposed new language to its new science standards. That additional language seems to question whether or not climate change is actually happening, and whether humans are causing climate change-despite overwhelming evidence from climate scientists.
BOE member Wade Linger told West Virginia Public Broadcasting that coal miners stand to lose jobs as a result of how climate change is taught in our public schools. He also stressed that the board did not remove any language regarding climate change, it merely added language to the science standards.
Suggested language alterations included:
1) S.6.ESS.6. The text: “Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise in global temperatures over the past century.” was altered to: “Ask questions to clarify evidence of the factors that have caused the rise and fall in global temperatures over the past century.” 2) S.9.ESS.14. The text: “Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.” was altered to: “Analyze geoscience data and the predictions made by computer climate models to assess their credibility for predicting future impacts on the Earth System."
During January’s Board of Education meeting, seven people went on the record casting doubt about whether or not humans are causing climate change. About 12 environmentalists, on the other hand, argued that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found overwhelming evidence to support the Theory of Climate Change.
Two separate public events in Morgantown recently discussed ways that climate change could impact for the Mountain State. “Climate Change and Population Health” was the title of a recent discussion at West Virginia University held on February 6th.
To make a comment about how you feel climate change should be taught in West Virginia public schools, go to the state’s website:http://wvde.state.wv.us/policies/ . The policy regarding science standards is called 2520. 3C.
A Senate committee approved an agreement Thursday that would modify the way immunization exemptions are granted in West Virginia, taking the power from…
A Senate committee approved an agreement Thursday that would modify the way immunization exemptions are granted in West Virginia, taking the power from the county level and centralizing it at the state Bureau for Public Health.
Members of the Senate Health Committee initially received a bill that would have allowed parents to seek religious exemptions from some immunization requirements. A committee substitute offered last week removed that exemption, but members still had concerns and asked for more time to work on a compromised version.
The committee substitute now requires a family doctor provide the Bureau for Public Health with a request for a medical exemption. The request would then be reviewed by a new chief immunization officer within the state Bureau.
The bill also sets up an appeals process for parents who disagree with the immunization officer’s decision. It can first be appealed to the Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health and then to a state court.
“This is obviously a good attempt in ensuring that the issue of inconsistencies are addressed while keeping the strong immunization policies intact,” Dr. Rahul Gupta, Commissioner for the Bureau for Public Health and the state’s chief health officer, told the committee, “and I think that’s a really good step forward.”
The bill was approved unanimously by the committee and now goes to Senate Judiciary for further consideration.
A Senate committee removed religious exemptions from a bill allowing local physicians to exempt children from some vaccines with the approval of the state chief health officer Tuesday. The original bill would have allowed for the religious exemptions in addition to medical exceptions already contained in state law.
Three Senators removed their names from the bills as sponsors before the Senate Health Committee took up the bill Tuesday. Sen. Mike Hall said his sponsorship was a clerical error to begin with, but Senators Mark Maynard and Chris Walters removed their backing because of concerns over the religious exemption in the original bill.
“We need to keep the strict requirements. We don’t have the problems they have in other states, we don’t have the outbreaks,” Walters said.
The committee, however, removed the religion provision Tuesday through a committee substitute. The revised bill instead calls on physicians and parents to prove “the immunization of a child is medically impossible or improper.”
Currently when a parent sees a doctor for an immunization except for his or her child, that doctor’s decision is sent to the local county health officer for final approval or disapproval.
Under the new bill, a physician’s medical exemption must be sent to the state Bureau for Public Health where the state chief health officer oversees and approves the exceptions according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.
Dr. Rahul Gutpa, Commissioner of the Bureau for Public Health, is that chief health officer. He told the committee Tuesday he had concerns over some provisions in the committee substitute, including mandating certain dosage amounts and ages that are subject to change by the CDC.
As to streamlining the process at the exemption approval process at the state rather than the county level, Gutpa didn’t object to the change, but told lawmakers he would need an additional physician in his office to spearhead the process.
“It is our full intent to make sure the inconsistencies that do exist in the system are eliminated, but they are eliminated in a way, in a manner that doesn’t put our children, our families at risk for disease outbreaks,” he told the committee.
“We believe that there is enough authority within the existing code to be able to do that with or without this piece of legislation.”
The Senate Health Committee voted to lay over the bill for later consideration.
While the chemical spill in Charleston left 300-thousand people without access to clean water, folks in the coalfields deal with water issues every day. We heard from folks in McDowell communities living off dated water systems that frequently go without water. Some communities have been on boil water advisories for years.
Credit Infrastructure
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Infrastructure
Region One Planning and Development Council planned water and sewer projects.
Eric Combs with the Region One Planning and Development Council says there are 58 water and sewer projects expected in the near to distant future in McDowell, Wyoming, Monroe, Summers, and Mercer Counties.
“There is a great need through out the whole but it seems like there is a greater need per say in Southern West Virginia,” he said.
One re-occurring challenge is replacing dated systems left behind by coal companies. Jennifer Hause with the West Virginia Water Research Institute can vouch for the system in Gary, her hometown. Hause says during the 60’s, 70’s and early 80’s her father maintained the water system as an employee of U.S. Steel. Around that time, the company began to pull out and close mines in the area. In this video, local historian and Wyoming County Circuit Clerk David “Bugs” Stover explains that the region has an abundance of water. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMiOH856-M8
It’s a common story throughout the coalfields of West Virginia although some communities didn’t necessarily keep water operators. In neighboring Wyoming, County Clerk Mike Goode explains.
“As the coal companies moved out they abandoned those utilities and the citizens had to take over those,” Goode said.
Goode and other elected officials made it a priority to replace the coal camp water systems and is proud to share success stories about places like Copperston, Wyoming and Glover where it was the folks in the communities making the repairs and doing what had to be done, to get water in their homes.
“Those people would get out in the middle of the night older people you know 70 and 80 years old in the middle of the night they’re out digging up a water lines trying to fix a leak. It’s not supposed to be that way in America.”
Despite the struggle to maintain these dated, crumbling systems, throughout the region, it seems the communities left with the coal company plumbing were the fortunate ones. Some places don’t have systems at all. But they make do with what they have. Jennifer Hause paints the picture she saw at Coal Mountain on the Wyoming, McDowell County border a few years ago.
"Their source of water was a reused gasoline tank that set up on the hillside that collected water from a spring," she said, "then a series of garden hosed brought it down the hill basically to another storage tank that someone would go and add a few gallons of bleach to ever so often.”
Hause says it’s pretty typical for the coalfield region.
Residents are resourceful and resilient with these circumstances. For some folks, it’s the Abandoned coal mines are often used for a source of drinking water too.
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A pipe comes out of an old coal mine in Itmann in Wyoming County where some folks gather drinking water.
like this one in Itmann in Wyoming County where a pipe comes out of the side of the mountain on the side of the road.
Folks often stop to fill up. County Circuit Clerk David Bugs Stover grew up just a few miles from here in Pierpoint.
Abandoned coal mines are often used for a source of drinking water like the one at Pierpoint in Wyoming County, where County Circuit Clerk David Bugs Stover grew up.
“All that water gravity feeds and sometimes it’s treated and sometimes it’s not,” Stover said.
Stover says it was a true community system with its own set of challenges.
“I remember one time my mom didn’t have water for 3 months,” he said. “It can almost drive you to the point of insane.”
“So as much as I felt and did feel for the folks in Charleston, I know what it’s like to go months and if you want water you go carry it out of the creek.”
Credit Jessica Lilly
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While pickup trucks hauling water was an unusual site in Charleston last year during the chemical spill, it’s common and a part of every day life for folks in the coalfields.
Self-Proclaimed “Mountain Folk”
Some folks use a cistern to store and collect water.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A cistern collects water carried from gutters off the house in McDowell County.
There are folks in the region proud of their independence.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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Terry Johnson lives on Burke Mountain in McDowell County where resident haul water to use in their homes.
Terry Johnson is a self proclaimed “mountain man” and gathers water for his community. He says he wouldn’t have it any other way. Some folks accepting of what they call the sacrifice of ‘mountain living’ while others really aren’t interested, or can’t afford a water bill.
“You have people that are third or fourth generation that they have to carry their water and a well with a lot of iron and they don’t know that there’s a better life,” Mike Goode said.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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Some folks are growing impatient on what they call “broken promises” for access to clean water.
While there are others that are growing impatient with what they call ’empty promises’ for access to public water. But mountain springs and abandoned mines can be good sources of water–some of the best water in the world, in fact. Marc Glass with Downstream Strategies says folks still should just be cautious.
“Your ground water needs to be protected the same way,” he said.
Several systems have been replaced but there is still more work to be done. For many folks in the coalfields today, a crumbling sometimes-abandoned coal industry water systems, mountain springs, streams, and store-bought bottled water are the options. And they can’t live without water.
Credit Jessica Lilly
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A family stops to gather water for their home in McDowell County.
