RECENT COAL-RELATED HUMAN HEALTH ISSUES

In the past few years coal scientists have demonstrated that coal and coal use can have unanticipated impacts on human health. For example, women in Yunnan Province, China have the highest known lung cancer mortality in the world. This high mortality displays a clear spatial relationship to the mines producing coal from the uppermost Permian. Geochemical, petrographic and grain-size analysis of coal samples used in the endemic villages demonstrate that the single geochemical property that makes this coal unusual is its high concentration of quartz (13.5 wt%) most of which occur as <10 μm grains. Interaction between the ultrafine quartz particles and volatile organic gases may explain this exceptional incidence of lung cancer. Recent work in the U.S. Gulf Coast has demonstrated that leaching of organic compounds from low rank coals by ground water may be contributing to severe kidney disease. Where people are drinking this water there appears to be an increased incidence of renal/pelvic cancer and kidney disease generally resulting in end stage renal failure requiring dialysis treatment. It has been shown for Texas and Louisiana that the number of dialysis beds per unit population is two to three times higher in those counties drawing water from the lignite-bearing Carrizo-Wilcox Formation than in adjacent counties and parishes drawing water from aquifers not associated with lignite deposits. A similar relationship appears to exist in Arkansas, Mississippi, and North Dakota. Another issue that deserves attention is the health problems that may be caused by emissions of trace elements and gases from widespread uncontrolled coal fires. Comprehensive characterization of coal could provide information that may be used to minimize or prevent these and other health problems caused by coal or coal use.