I had coal fume poisoning when I was in my teens, and I have wondered
since being diagnosed with Pksns, what if any role it might have played.
JMR

03/29/99

Study: Coal Fumes Poisoning Chinese
 By PAUL RECER=
 AP Science Writer=
           WASHINGTON (AP) _ Millions of Chinese are being poisoned by
 fumes from the raw coal they burn in their homes for cooking and
 heating, and people in other developing nations may face similar
 risks, U.S. and Chinese scientists say in a study.
           An estimated 800 million of China's 1.2 billion people use
coal
 in their homes. In many rural communities, the fuel is full of
 arsenic, lead, mercury, fluorine and other poisonous metals that
 can pose a serious health threat, the researchers said.
           The poisons become part of the smoke from burning coal and
are
 then breathed into lungs and baked into foods, said Harvey E.
 Belkin, co-author of a study appearing Tuesday in the Proceedings
 of the National Academy of Sciences.
           For example, peppers dried over coal fires can have up to 500
 parts per million of arsenic, a potentially dangerous level, he
 said.
           ``The coal we saw in China could never be burned in the
United
 States'' because of the poison mineral content, said Belkin.
 ``There is high arsenic, high selenium, high mercury.''
           What's learned in China may point the way to solving the
problem
 of possible health effects from burning dirty coal, Belkin said.
           In one Chinese province, experts have identified thousands of
 cases of arsenic poisoning, with symptoms including skin cancer and
 open sores.
           In another area, at least 10 million people have fluorine
 poisoning with many suffering from soft and misshapen bones, said
 study co-author Robert B. Finkelman.
           Diseases and disorders caused by burning of dirty coal are
``an
 enormous problem,'' said Finkelman.
           Such dirty coal would have to be cleaned before it could be
 burned in the United States. And coal in any form is seldom used in
 the U.S. for cooking.
           In China, Belkin said, millions of people have no choice.
About
 22 percent of rural homes depend on coal.
           ``If they want to cook or heat, they have to use coal,'' he
 said. China has very little oil, gas or wood that can be used for
 fuel. But China has the world's largest known reserves of coal. For
 many peasants, the coal is dug out of hillsides, free for the
 taking.
           Many poor Chinese burn the coal in unvented stoves, filling
 their homes with fumes, Belkin said. Indeed, early mornings in
 rural villages finds most homes wreathed with the bluish haze of
 coal smoke.
           In southwest China's Guizhou province, which has beds of
 arsenic-rich coal, farmers routinely dry peppers over coal-fired
 stoves. The produce absorbs the smoke and fumes, and then are added
 to virtually every food prepared, Belkin said.
           It is unknown if the arsenic poisoning has caused any deaths,
he
 said, because death certificates and autopsies are rare in rural
 China, but at least 3,000 confirmed cases of chronic arsenic
 poisoning have been confirmed.
           In another area, farmers use coal with a high fluorine
content
 to dry corn, Belkin said. The grain takes up high levels of the
 poison mineral, he said, and as a result fluorosis, or fluorine
 poisoning, is very common. The effects can range from discolored
 teeth to softened, twisted and crippled bones.
           Judy Mumford, an Environmental Protection Agency scientist
who
 has studied China's pollution problems, agrees that poisoning from
 the burning of dirty coal has had a very severe health effect.
           Chinese officials, aware of the problem, are beginning to
search
 for solutions, she said.
--
Judith Richards, London, Ontario, Canada
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