Power, And Death, From Coal

March 5, 2015- A recent Earth Talk post on Scientific American's website looks at the negative impacts on our health of our reliance on coal combustion, an energy source which accounts for more than half of Americans’ electric power generation.

Here are the highlights of "How Coal Kills":

• "According to Coal's Assault on Human Health, a report by the non-profit Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), coal combustion releases mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and other substances known to be hazardous to human health," Scientific American writes. "The report evaluates the impacts of coal pollution on our respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems and concludes that air pollutants produced by coal combustion contribute to asthma, lung cancer, congestive heart failure and strokes."

• "The findings of this report are clear: While the U.S. relies heavily on coal for its energy needs, the consequences of that reliance for our health are grave," says Alan Lockwood, a principal author of the report and a professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo and quoted in the post.

• Coal mining leads U.S. industries in fatal injuries and workers suffer prolonged health issues, like black lung disease, which causes permanent scarring of the lung tissues.

• The PSR report details how surface mining destroys forests and groundcover, leading to flooding and soil erosion. In southern Appalachia, mountaintop removal mining can harm aquatic ecosystems as streams are buried in rubble.

• Waterways may also become contaminated "coal ash," the storage of post-combustion wastes from coal plants. According to the PSR report, there are 584 coal ash storage sites in the United States, and toxic residues have migrated into water supplies at dozens of them.

• "Coal ash is a silent killer," Barbara Gottlieb, director of environment and health at PSR tells Scientific American. "Communities are drinking contaminated water laced with toxic chemicals that poison humans."

• The U.S. Department of Energy encourages coal plants to reduce sulfur oxide, nitrogen oxide and greenhouse-gas emissions by using biomass as a supplemental fuel in existing coal boilers.

• The post mentions a Union of Concerned Scientists report which says that tree limbs and tops normally left behind after timber harvesting operations, and otherwise unmarketable materials like dead, damaged and small-diameter trees, can be collected for biomass energy use. Income from selling biomass can help fund the cost of forest management treatments needed to remove invasive species or reduce the threat of fires.

• Scientific American notes that utilities like New Hampshire’s Northern Wood Power are taking a lead in putting biomass energy to work in their power plants. The company's newest boiler saves more than 130,000 tons of coal annually, reduced air emissions by more than 400,000 tons annually and led to the development of a thriving wood chip market for New Hampshire’s forest industry.

• "Retrofitting coal-fired power plants to burn biomass makes sense for utilities trying to be greener while keeping their existing facilities productive, but environmental leaders stress that the federal government should provide more incentives for switching over to even greener energy sources like solar or wind," the post concludes.

Read the full ScientificAmerican.com Earth Talk post here.

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