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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