Coal a health risk

Former Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientists have determined in their article “Radiological Impact of Airborne Effluents of Coal and Nuclear Plants” published in the Dec. 8, 1978, issue of Science magazine that Americans living near coal-fired power plants are exposed to higher radiation doses than those living near nuclear power plants that meet government regulations.

“The main sources of radiation released from coal combustion include not only uranium and thorium, but also daughter products produced by the decay of these isotopes, such as radium, radon, polonium, bismuth and lead,” the report says. “Although not a decay product, naturally occurring radioactive potassium-40 is also a significant contributor. … The population effective dose equivalent from coal plants is 100 times

that from nuclear plants.”

Releasing even the products of a “clean” coal plant, which includes mercury, into the heavily populated Palmer-Butte area, which is confined by mountains and subject to air inversions, clearly puts the population here at serious long-term health risk.

Horace Heffner,

Palmer