A comprehensive and critical medical report by the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) entitled Coal’s Assault of Human Health, replete with expert medical and public health opinion, states that ‘coal pollutants damage every major organ in the human body and contribute to four of the top five leading causes of death in the United States.’ There is a dire call to ‘shut down coal operations in the US.’ The movement against coal ‘is not simply about cleaning up the coal process; it is about halting its production altogether in order to immediately save lives.’

According to Dr. Alan H. Lockwood, a principal author of the report and a professor of neurology at the University at Buffalo, “The findings of this report are clear: while the U.S. relies heavily on coal for its energy needs, the consequences of that reliance for our health are grave.”

Coal kills at ‘every stage in its life cycle.’ It impacts human health right from mining operations all the way to the stages of cleaning, transportation, burning, and disposing of the combustion waste. ‘PSR reports that many Americans are being affected daily by coal and the exposure is contributing to horrible health problems; heart attacks, lung cancer, strokes, asthma among others.’

However, the plea to halt coal production seems to have fallen on deaf ears with the Obama administration. In the middle of 2009, ‘the US Department of Energy poured $1 billion into relaunching FutureGen, a project that intends to show how a plant can capture carbon emissions.’

“The FutureGen project holds great promise as a flagship facility to demonstrate carbon capture and storage at commercial scale. Developing this technology is critically important for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. and around the world,” claimed U.S Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Coal, however, is harmful to the human health in all its totality. Burning coal, in particular, releases toxins and other pollutants in the atmosphere. There is no such thing as “clean coal.” ‘The FutureGen endeavor, like all other “clean coal” projects, is greenwashing at its dirtiest.’

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Via counterpunch