Re: “Trump exempts nearly 70 coal plants from Biden-era rule on mercury and other toxic air pollution,” Nation, April 15:
Trump describes coal as “stunning and clear.” “Harmful and soiled” is way more correct. Two years in the past, the CDC (now going through DOGE cuts) launched a long-term research on the well being of coal miners carried out by scientists on the College of Illinois, Chicago and Nationwide Institute for Occupational Security and Well being. Lengthy story brief: Researchers reviewed the cause-of-death knowledge of 235,550 U.S. coal miners who died between 1979 and 2017 and located that American coal miners born in 1940 or later, and particularly these in Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia, have over eight instances the chances of dying from nonmalignant respiratory illnesses than others of their age group within the normal inhabitants. These illnesses embody “black lung,” silicosis and progressive fibrosis, all brought on by coal mud inhalation. Coal miners face excessive charges of lung most cancers. Explosions and accidents are additionally answerable for coal miners’ comparatively brief life spans of fifty to 60. So, how precisely is coal “stunning and clear”?
Jennifer Robertson, Seattle
