"Coal-burning power plants are a public health hazard."
Catherine Thomasson
Physicians for Social Responsibility
- Every eleven and one-half days, the explosive equivalent of the Hiroshima atomic bomb is unleashed upon the mountains of southern West Virginia and eastern Kentucky.
- 300,000-600,000 Americans born each year are potentially affected by mercury exposure from power plants. Effects can include: lower IQ, fine motor problems, autism, ADD/ADHD, mental retardation, epilepsy, kidney/heart disease, hearing problems, even death at very high levels.
- Fine particulate matter from coal-fired plants results in 500,000 asthma attacks and 30,000 premature deaths from heart attacks each year in America.
From mining to burning, coal is an environmental and human health hazard. As Burning the Future: Coal in America demonstrates, current mining techniques, particularly Mountaintop Removal mining in Appalachia, are devastating the natural environment and harming human health. At the power plants, coal is the largest emitter of many pollutants the EPA has determined to be harmful to people’s health.
Degradation of the Environment
Mountaintop Removal Mining is the direct cause of the loss of vast acreage of valuable forest resources in Appalachia. By clear cutting the trees and blasting the rock, heavy metals and other dangerous minerals are released into the atmosphere, where they end up in ground water and plants. Arsenic, mercury, selenium, cadmium, manganese are only a few of the pollutants that scientists find in nearby soil and water. Additionally, coal is processed near where it is mined so that harmful emissions are reduced at the smoke stack. This results in hundreds of unlined COAL SLURRY impoundments that leach their toxic goop into ground water, making drinking water dangerous.
- Mountaintop Removal and the Environment
- Slurry Impoundments and the Environment
- Mountaintop Removal/Slurry and Health Effects
Coal Plant Emissions and Health Effects
Pollution from coal fired power plants causes a raft of health problems, from a variety of respiratory illnesses, to heart attacks, brain damage and premature death. Mercury in our food, smog in our cities, acidification of our waters and a warmer climate are all byproducts of burning coal. Efforts to reduce this pollution, in the face of resistance from coal and utility companies, have yielded limited results. The number of Americans living in areas with unhealthy air still approaches one half of the population, and coal plant pollution contributes significantly to the problem.