STOKING FIRE: Mountaintop Coal Mining Leads to Birth Defects, Respiratory Illness and Other Health

[txlibdem]

STOKING FIRE: Mountaintop Coal Mining Leads to Birth Defects, Respiratory Illness and Other Health Problems
by Eleanor J. Bader, RH Reality Check

September 2, 2011 - 11:03am

When Madison Minton was six months old, her parents noticed that her breathing was frequently labored. Now in second grade, the child is on eight medications for asthma and other pulmonary ailments.

“Madison’s situation is typical,” says Deborah Payne, Energy and Health Coordinator of the Kentucky Environmental Foundation. “People in Eastern Kentucky often don’t have the financial capacity to move away so they live with the consequences of being downwind of a coal processing plant. This means that Madison is exposed to high quantities of dust every single day.”

Payne calls coal mining “one piece of the birth defect puzzle” and says that at every stage, coal is problematic, from its extraction, to its processing, transport, and eventual burning. “At each step there are negative health consequences for adults, children, and fetal life,” she continues.

And it’s gotten worse. As mountaintop removal has horned-in on underground mining, the health maladies of residents of eastern Kentucky, southwest Virginia, eastern Tennessee, and southwest West Virginia—Appalachia—have begun to pile up.

http://www.rhrealitycheck.org/blog/2011/09/02/stoking-fire

[TheWraith]

1. Coal fired electricity is the biggest environmental threat today.

Oil gets the attention, but the reality is that coal does orders of magnitude more damage.

[txlibdem]

2. Death by coal: the World Health Organization says that Coal kills up to 2 million people PER YEAR

And here's what China found out about their reliance on coal power plants:

China Coal Linked to Birth Defects
By Michael Lelyveld
2009-02-09

China plans more coal output despite link to birth defects.

BOSTON--High rates of birth defects in China's industrial regions have raised public concerns about the country's heavy reliance on high-polluting coal.

On Jan. 31, the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC) said that babies are born with physical defects every 30 seconds in China, the state-controlled China Daily reported. The incidence is equal to over 1 million cases per year.

http://www.rfa.org/english/energy_watch/china-coal-02092009141628.html