Health concerns from coal mining

Both extracting coal and burning coal carry real health risks to those who mine it, those who live near coal mines, and those downwind and downstream.

Health risks to workers

Every year, coal miners die from diseases brought on by breathing hazardous coal dust. Black lung disease, also known as coal workers’ lung pneumonoconiosis, is caused by breathing in coal mine dust. If inhaled over an extended period of time, this dust can collect in the lungs and create scar tissue that obstructs airflow to the lungs. Despite federal laws, miners continue to die from this disease.

Health risks to communities

A 2008 West Virginia University study published in the American Journal of Public Health has found that as coal production increases in an area, so does the incidence of chronic illness in nearby communities. The study’s lead author, Dr. Michael Hendryx, said people living near mining operations may be exposed to and inhale dust from surface mining operations, coal preparation and cleaning plants and truck and train loading facilities. Another exposure pathway may be the chemically treated water used to wash the coal and then discharged into surface waters or injected into groundwater. The study substantiates the claims of residents in coal mining communities, who have long complained of impaired health. The main findings from the study show that people in coal mining communities:

• have a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease;
• have a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic lung diseases such as emphysema;
• are 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure (hypertension).

Health concerns from burning coal

Air contamination

According to the Clean Air Task Force (CATF), the adverse health consequences of breathing air pollution caused by emissions from utility power plants are severe and well documented in the published medical and scientific literature. In the report Dirty Air, Dirty Power: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Air Pollution from Power Plants CATF found that:

• Fine particulate matter pollution from U.S. power plants leads to more than 24,000 deaths each year.
• Powerplant pollution is responsible for 38,200 non-fatal heart attacks per year.
• The elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease are most severely affected by fine particle pollution from powerplants.
• People who live in metropolitan areas near coal-fired plants feel their impacts most acutely -- their attributable death rates are much higher than areas with few or no coal-fired plants.

CATF also reports that recent epidemiological and toxicological evidence suggests that the particles resulting from coal-fired power plants are particularly dangerous, and that studies indicate that sulfate particles, which are formed from coal-fired power plant sulfur dioxide emissions, are more strongly associated with human mortality than other components of particulate matter.

Water contamination

A 2007 study suggests that emissions from coal-fired power plants may be an important source of water pollution and fish contamination in parts of Pennsylvania. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh found high levels of mercury and selenium in catfish caught in a rural area downwind from a coal-fired power plant.

Both mercury and selenium are released when coal is burned for power generation. The concentrations found in fish exceeded Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-recommended levels. Results showed that the risk of developing neurological disorders from ingesting catfish with levels of mercury found near Kittanning, PA were eight times higher than the EPA's acceptable risk for children under six years of age; seven times higher for children between seven and 16 years of age; and six times higher for women of child-bearing age. For the general population, this risk was five times higher than the EPA's acceptable risk.

For More Information

• NDE: Dirty air pollutants: VOCs, NOx, ozone, particulate matter, diesel exhaust, H2S, acid rain, and mercury.

• NDE: Dirty air and coal.

• NDE: Dirty water and coal.

• NDE: Sources of dirty energy - coal.

• Louisville Courier Journal: Series on black lung disease.

• Hendryx, M. and Ahern, M.M. (W. Virginia Univ): Relations Between Health Indicators and Residential Proximity to Coal Mining in West Virginia and .

• Clean Air Task Force: Power plant emissions and Dirty Air Dirty Power: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Air Pollution from Power Plants.

• Natural Resources Defense Council: Coal Is Hazardous to Your Health - Coal-fired power plants threaten the environment and your health.

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