Don't Get Duped Like Obama: Here're the Top 5 Myths About Coal

By Tara Lohan, AlterNet. Posted February 14, 2009.

If you live near a coal-burning power plant or an extraction area, then you already know it's a myth that coal is safe. However, the rest of the country got a glimpse at the potential hazards just before Christmas when more than 1 billion gallons of contaminated coal-waste sludge spilled from a holding pond at the Tennessee Valley Authority coal plant in Harriman, Tenn., on Dec. 22.

The chemical-laced flood wiped out neighborhoods, covering cars and knocking homes off their foundations, while spilling into a tributary of the Clinch River -- a major source of drinking water.

In all, over 400 acres were covered with the toxic coal-ash mess, leaving enormous questions about the risk to human and environmental health.

Javier Sierra wrote, "According to independent tests, the coal sludge contained amounts up to 300 times the legal limits of arsenic, barium, cadmium, chromium, lead, mercury, nickel and thallium. These are the ingredients of a stew with an enormous toxic potential that can cause cancer, birth defects and impede both the mental and physical development of children."

As the horror of this spill was just setting in, TVA experienced another, smaller, though also toxic, spill at one of their plants in Alabama, causing a scurry of action across the country examining the realities of our coal use. It turns out that the coal ash from the Tennessee spill is a very common contaminant from coal burning. A report from Earth Justice found:

Disposal of coal combustion waste in coal mines is poisoning streams and drinking water supplies across the country. The solid waste generated by burning coal in power plants is the second-largest industrial waste stream in the United States. ... the waste's toxic contaminants, including arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead, selenium and thallium, can readily pollute streams and drinking water. These chemicals can result in a number of health effects in humans, including neurological damage, cancer and reproductive failure, as well as widespread ecosystem damage.

The health threats of coal are numerous and aren't simply related to spills and other accidents. The National Resources Defense Council reports that, "Power plant pollution is responsible for 38,200 nonfatal heart attacks and 554,000 asthma attacks each year."

Many know of the hazards coal poses to miners -- the risks of injury and death from accidents, and the health concerns, like black lung. But it is not just those in the mines who are at risk.

Last year, a study by Dr. Michael Hendryx of West Virginia University found that when there is an increase in coal production in an area, there is also an increase in chronic illnesses. Here are some of the more shocking findings of the study, which that found those in coal production areas:

• have a 70 percent increased risk for developing kidney disease;
• have a 64 percent increased risk for developing chronic lung diseases such as emphysema;
• are 30 percent more likely to report high blood pressure (hypertension).

There is also a risk to those who live near where coal is burned. In its report, "Dirty Air, Dirty Power: Mortality and Health Damage Due to Air Pollution from Power Plants," the Clean Air Task Force revealed that:

• Fine-particulate matter pollution from U.S. power plants leads to more than 24,000 deaths each year.
• The elderly, children and those with respiratory disease are most severely affected by fine particle-pollution from power plants.
• People who live in metropolitan areas near coal-fired plants feel their impacts most acutely -- their attributable death rates are much higher than areas with few or no coal-fired plants.

So before President Obama and legislators think of giving more taxpayer money to the coal industry, they need to consider the larger implications for human health and safety.

3. It's Cheap

In the last century, we seem to have goofed on our math by forgetting to add in some important externalities when it comes to the environment and energy. So anyone who says that coal is cheap, has obviously failed to include its impact on communities and ecosystems.

The only way cheap is associated with coal is when it comes to property values. In Appalachia, where MTR mining uses 3 million pounds of explosives a day to blow the tops off peaks, it has made nearby people's homes and land worth next to nothing.

Constant dynamite blasting has cracked foundations and shaken peoples nerves. And after the blasting, the rock is dumped into valleys, creating "fills" and burying streams. Heavy rains have caused these fills to collapse, making people who live downhill fearful of massive floods. And it makes the resale of their homes virtually impossible.

See more stories tagged with: obama, coal, mtr, clean coal, mining, appalachia, stimulus, moutaintop removal

Tara Lohan is a managing editor at AlterNet.

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