The Health Costs of Coal – Ignored By Governments for Too Long

Mark Ogge, Beyond Zero Emissions' director of operations, writes in The Newcastle Herald:

In the last days of the New South Wales election campaign, a new study has been announced to investigate the health impacts of coal mining and combustion. While the climate changing impacts of coal are well understood, the adverse health effects on the community from mining and burning the fossil fuel are not. We have not yet woven a coherent understanding of the health and social impacts of the coal cycle in an Australian context.

Last year ABC’s Four Corners program highlighted community concern in the Hunter Valley over the impact of coal mining operations. People of all ages living near the region’s dusty open pit mines have complained of suffering respiratory and cardiovascular conditions. Since the program aired, the NSW Government has not commissioned independent research into the issue, and the Opposition has not demanded it.

Politicians have dropped the ball on this issue. For decades, coal mines and power stations have been approved with little regard to the health impacts on local communities. Both major parties have failed in their duty to the public when it comes to investigating the adverse health impacts of the coal industry.

As international research mounts, it’s time the Australian public is given access to the information necessary to make a true assessment of the costs and benefits of coal.  In the face of governmental inaction, this responsibility has fallen to others.

The University of Sydney’s Health and Sustainability Unit will investigate the direct, quantifiable harms as well as indirect and unquantifiable harms to health from mining in the Hunter Valley and Liverpool Plains regions. The former will include assessment of the excess burden of respiratory disease, mental health disorders, cancer, injury and death; the latter will include impacts on social health and sense of community.

A 2009 US study by the Nobel-winning Physicians for Social Responsibility concluded that “each step of the coal lifecycle—mining, transportation, washing, combustion, and disposing of post- combustion wastes—impacts human health.” The impacts are not confined to respiratory diseases that one might initially expect, but also include cardiovascular and neurological impacts. Particularly pernicious are the potential effects on the lung and brain development of unborn and young children.

More recently, the Center for Health and the Global Environment at the Harvard Medical School estimated the annual cost of coal ‘externalities’ in the United States. Domestic coal combustion cost the US $345 billion in 2008. Over one third of this damage—some US$187 billion—resulted from air pollution that contributes to heart, lung, kidney and neurological disease.

Of course, the continued use of coal and research into its undesirable impacts is situated in the context of climate change and energy debates.  It may still be argued by some that the benefits of energy from coal outweigh the consequences. This is not the case. There are commercially available substitutes for coal-fired power which are successfully being deployed around the world right now. Baseload renewable electricity projects could power Australia’s homes, hospitals, schools and industry without the adverse health impacts of coal.

There is a precedent for substituting harmful materials with benign ones. Decades ago, Australian governments showed leadership and responsibility for public health by banning asbestos. Though the asbestos is an excellent insulator and cheap building material, huge reserves of the mineral remain safely underground. We could keep extracting it for years but we choose to keep it in the ground because the social and health impacts are so large. Whether this will eventually be the case for coal is yet to be seen.

This research project is in the interests of people living in the Hunter and Liverpool Plains. Independent candidate for the Upper Hunter Tim Duddy has endorsed and supported the project, but what about the major parties? Where do they stand on the issue? Some in the community might reasonably ask why the Keneally Government hasn’t looked into the health impacts of coal? And whether the incumbent, National George Souris, has ever called for an inquiry despite many calls for action?

This particular study is just the tip of the iceberg. Whichever party takes office after the weekend’s state election, they should commit to commissioning independent research on the health impacts coal mining and combustion.  It’s what the people of our mining communities deserve.

           Physicians for Social Responsibility, 2009, Coal’s Assault on Human Health, http://www.psr.org/assets/pdfs/coals-assault-executive.pdf