Seeing as I live in one of the big three coal mining states in the U.S., I thought that I would highlight a talk that was given by Dr. Alan Lockwood on the adverse health affects of burning coal. I sent the below letter to the editor of the Courier-Journal:
To the Editor:
You would have to be dead not to have heard of the EPA’s so called “War on Coal,” but without the EPA’s efforts, dead is what more than a few Kentuckians would be without enforcement of the Clean Air Act. According to Dr. Alan Lockwood, a neurologist and author of “The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health,” over 230,000 deaths from coal pollution will be prevented by 2020 because of the EPA and the Clean Air Act; this was one of many facts that Dr. Lockwood presented on August 22nd at the Clifton Center about coal pollution and human health sponsored by the Kentucky Environmental Foundation.
While the EPA and the Clean Air Act have saved lives that would have been shortened by coal pollution, the burning of coal still costs the U.S. 62 billion dollars a year with regards to human health. Also, coal burning power plants have produced 100 million tons of coal ash - a waste product -which is concentrated with toxic heavy metals such as mercury. To date, there is no adequate disposal process for toxic coal ash.
Coal industry advocates avoid discussing the health effects of coal pollution. Instead, they would rather use a Madison Avenue slogan to imply that the coal industry and power companies are innocent victims and coal pollution is benign. However, coal pollution is real and deadly, and Kentuckians need to know the dangers of burning coal to human health.
I just wanted to post this to let people in the progressive community know that there are some in Kentucky who are fighting back against the propaganda spewed by the coal and power companies.