Coal continues to threaten health of Pittsburgh, nation

Despite being ranked the “most livable city” by Forbes magazine, there’s still an old, familiar threat to residents that continues to linger in the air here in Pittsburgh.

Air pollution — which has marred the Steel City’s history since the days when titans of industry such as Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick walked its streets — persists in hindering the quality of life here. Granted, black smog no longer blocks the sun or blankets the streets as it did decades ago, but air pollution is still considered to be one of the city’s most perverse issues.

According to the American Lung Association, Pittsburgh is currently ranked eighth in year-round particle pollution among U.S. cities, and it’s the highest for a city outside of California. The consequences of this poor air quality are made apparent in the fact that the city ranks 17th in the nation for its number of neighborhoods containing high cancer risks for its residents. Furthermore, the pollution has contributed to premature births and low birth weights — as stated by the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review — and it has exacerbated the number of heart- and lung-disease diagnoses in the city.

The main source of the toxic air spewing into the area is the same as when Pittsburgh was know as the “Smoky City” in the early 20th century. It lies in the coal-fired power plants surrounding the city, which are constantly sending their carcinogenic pollutants into the air. These pollutants then travel down and gather in the Allegheny River Valley.

As a result, Pittsburghers are breathing in soot on a daily basis, thus contributing to the 88,000 people in the Pittsburgh-New Castle area suffering from chronic bronchitis and the 47,000 children diagnosed with asthma.

Yet despite the apparent urgency, the pollution created by Pennsylvania’s coal industry is allowed to continue. In part, this is a result of the modern amenities that we depend on and take for granted on a daily basis. No one really thinks too deeply about where their electricity is coming from when they flip a light switch or heat up leftovers in the microwave because both are conveniences we are simply used to at this point.

In fact, coal generates about half of the United States’ electricity, and each day the average person consumes about 20 pounds of coal as a result of their electricity usage. As Jeff Goodell, author of “Big Coal,” put it, “Our shiny white iPod economy is propped up by dirty black rocks.”

Convenience is one reason we continue to allow coal to pollute our air. Another is politics. Big coal companies — of which there are only four in the nation that unearth the majority of the total coal yield — are deeply entrenched in state legislatures and in Washington. In coal-rich regions, companies fund campaigns for local politicians who in return provide subsidies and block clean-air legislation, prompting politicians such as former West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin to proclaim that, “There is no replacement for coal. There might be 30 or 50 or 100 years from now, but there’s not today.” By that logic, we just have to deal with coal’s adverse effects, because there is simply nothing we can do about it, lest we give up a good chunk of our modern way of life.

Historically, there has been one main talking point in defense of coal used by coal peddlers and the politicians who support them: Coal is a job creator, and if you take coal away, you are then taking jobs away from many hard-working people.

First of all, as a career path, a coal extraction is one of the most treacherous. More than 104,000 Americans died mining coal between 1900 and 2005, and twice as many have died from lung poisoning. The numbers continue to pile up: Coal companies are still seeing employee fatalities on a monthly basis. Consequently, the fatality rate for workers in coal is 60 percent higher than for those working in oil and gas extraction.

Furthermore, according to research conducted by economists at the University of Massachusetts’ Political Economy and Research Institute, the coal industry provides the third-least amount of jobs per $1 million investment compared to all other energy and infrastructure fields. For instance, in the Powder River Basin, which stretches between Wyoming and Montana, companies extract nearly 500 million tons of coal each year with just 7,000 workers. That’s about 66,000 tons of coal for each worker. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of those who work in coal are not unionized. Realistically, the coal industry is not nearly the source of jobs that some make it out to be.

Despite this, coal is still defended by many politicians as being economically vital. But coal is gradually losing its power. With the EPA cracking down on carbon emissions and with natural gas — which has its own set of problems — slowly overcoming the industry, coal’s influence has been both economically and politically lessened over recent years. Nonetheless, coal is still very much present and so is the pollution it creates. Even though we have made progress in slowly weaning ourselves off the stuff, a shift in the way we use energy is required in order to make our air fully clean again.

This needs to be done not only for Pittsburgh’s sake, but for the sake of the nation, as well. As public-health researcher Joel Schwartz stated, “I see more people dying of particle air pollution than are dying of AIDS, and I need to call people’s attention to that.” That is a truly terrifying observation.

Write Nick at njv10@pitt.edu.