SPECIAL REPORT: How unhealthy is coal?

By Iris C. Gonzales (The Philippine Star)

 (Part 2 of 3)

 

MANILA, Philippines - In the Philippines, where short-term solutions to problems are often the norm, coal power plants may be considered the pink elephants in the room.

Not many people want to look at its debilitating effects on the environment and health.

For experts, it’s no longer a question of whether or not coal is unhealthy. The question, they said, is how seriously unhealthy coal is.

In the book, The Silent Epidemic authored by Alan Lockwood, a physician, and published by the MIT Press said while “exposure to burning coal” would never be listed as the cause of death on a single death certificate, tens of thousands of deaths from asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and other illnesses are clearly linked to coal-derived pollution.

“As politicians and advertising campaigns extol the virtues of “clean coal,” the dirty secret is that coal kills,” Lockwood said.

He said that every aspect of coal – from its complex chemical makeup to details of mining, transporting, burning, and disposal – describes coal pollution’s effects on the respiratory, cardiovascular, and nervous systems, and how these problems will only get worse.

Relatively few people are aware of the health threats posed by coal-derived pollutants, and those who are aware lack the political clout of the coal industry, he said.

“Coal-fired plants make people sick and die, particularly children and those with chronic illnesses, and they cost society huge amounts of money desperately needed for other purposes,” he said.

Lockwood is Emeritus Professor of Neurology and Nuclear Medicine at the State University of New York at Buffalo.

There are no recent published extensive reports on the health impact of coal in the Philippines.

However, in a report on coal operations in Australia, where environment standards are stricter, data showed a number of adverse health effects.

“These effects range from excess deaths and increased rates of cancer, heart, lung and kidney disease and birth defects to minor respiratory complaints,” according to the report titled Health and Social Harms of Mining in Local Communities.

“These concerns are nowhere more apparent than in the Hunter Region of New South Wales (NSW) – Australia’s oldest and most productive coal mining area – which has in excess of 30, mostly open-cut coal mines, and six active coal-fired power stations. The Hunter Region includes 11 local government areas with a combined population of some 700,000 people whose livelihood is derived from a number of important industries including tourism, farming, grazing, wine growing and making, and race horse breeding, as well as coal mining. There have been multiple anecdotal reports of disease clusters associated with mining, and calls from various community organizations and local government for studies to explore and examine these issues,” it said.

According to the report, children and infants in coal mining communities have been found to have: increased respiratory symptoms including wheeze, cough and absence from school.

Meanwhile, adults in communities near coal-fired power stations and coal combustion facilities have been found to have: increased risk of death from lung, laryngeal and bladder cancer, increased risk of skin cancer and increased asthma rates and respiratory symptoms.

Furthermore, children, infants, and fetal outcomes in communities near coal-fired power stations and coal combustion facilities have been found to have Oxidative deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage, higher rates of preterm birth, low birth weight, miscarriages and stillbirths, impaired fetal and child growth and neurological development and increased asthma rates and respiratory symptoms.

This is because coal combustion releases a combination of toxic chemicals into the environment and contributes significantly to global warming, according to a 2009 report, Coal’s Assault on Human Health by the United States-based Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Coal combustion releases sulfur dioxide, particulate matter (Pm), nitrogen oxides, mercury, and dozens of other substances known to be hazardous to human health. Coal combustion contributes to smog through the release of oxides of nitrogen, which react with volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight to produce ground-level ozone, the primary ingredient in smog, the report said.

As a result, the damage is to the respiratory, cardiovascular and nervous systems and contributes to four of the top five leading cause of death in the US.

These are heart disease, cancer, stroke, and respiratory diseases.

“Although it is difficult to ascertain the proportion of this disease burden that is attributable to coal pollutants, even very modest contributions to these major causes of death are likely to have large effects at the population level, given high incidence rates. Coal combustion is also responsible for more than 30 percent of total US carbon dioxide pollution, contributing significantly to global warming and its associated health impacts,” it said.

The specific impacts of each coal emission, according to the report, are as follows:

Sulfur dioxide, which reacts in the air to form sulfuric acid, causes coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath, nasal congestion and inflammation and worsens asthma. The gas can destabilize heart rhythms and increases risk of infant death.

Particulate matter (PM), on the other hand, directly emitted from coal burning, crosses from the lungs into the bloodstream, resulting in inflammation of the cardiac system, which in turn, is a root cause of cardiac disease including heart attack and stroke. PM exposure is also linked to low birth weight, premature birth, and sudden infant death.

Mercury, on the other hand, has developmental effects in babies that are born to mothers who eat contaminated fish while pregnant.

Fetuses and children are directly at risk. In adults, mercury affects blood pressure regulation and heart rate.

Next… (Part 3: Gencossay dirty coal is a thing of the past).

http://www.philstar.com/business/2014/07/18/1347361/special-report-how-unhealthy-coal