The Human Cost of Coal

With the world’s focus turning to environmental worries, particularly during this Earth Day week, we are rightly concerned about the carbon cost of coal and seeking cleaner forms of energy. However, in our pre-occupation with the environmental harms produced by mining and burning coal, we should not forget the human cost of coal — the miners who suffer daily in bringing this substance to the surface.

The recent disaster in the Upper Big Branch mine, which caused the deaths of twenty-nine West Virginian miners, is but the latest in a long tale of human suffering. In the United States, nearly seventy miners are killed each year, and almost 12,000 injured. Coal mining produces a significant share of that total number.

And the injuries suffered by coal miners are especially horrific. Not only do coal miners bear the risk of working in confined, ill-ventilated spaces deep under the ground (at constant risk to life and limb), but their work exposes them to a disease-prone environment. One common sickness suffered by current and former coal miners is black lung, which seriously reduces life expectancy — 4.5% of all U.S. coal miners suffer from this disease. Former President George W. Bush praised the coal industry to the skies, proclaiming it as the bedrock of American energy independence, and a cheap source of fuel. Cheap, perhaps, in terms of dollars and cents, but not when human life is the measurement.

Yet the United States is far from the worst culprit when it comes to preserving the health and wealth-being of its coal miners. During the 1990s, Chinese coal miners were killed at an average rate of 5,968 per year. China’s recent economic boom is fueled in part by the blood of her workers.

What can one do about these horrifying conditions? One solution would be to cease coal mining entirely, for both environmental and health reasons. Until that day arrives, forcing companies to observe mining safety laws would be a good place to start. Too many mining companies and mine owners view safety violations, and the resulting fines, as simply a cost of doing business. That attitude must change.

There’s an old saying that “all coal mining safety laws have been written in miners' blood." Laws written in blood should be enforced.

The next time you turn on your computer, or switch on a light bulb, remember the blood price that comes from electricity produced by coal power.

Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons