A letter to the editor from Harrisburg PSR's Dr. James E. Jones.

PSR is petitioning the White House to have the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) release health-protective standards for disposal of coal ash.

Moving the U.S. off of polluting, carbon-heavy coal-fired electricity will be much easier when clean, healthy renewable energy sources are in place. To that end, Catherine Thomasson MD, PSR’s new executive director, testified on February 14 in favor of a bill to facilitate development of an off-shore wind farm off the Atlantic coast.

Dr. Alan H. Lockwood, an Emeritus Professor of Neurology at the University of Buffalo and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility, was in Fairbanks as a guest of the Alaska Community Action on Toxics and the Northern Alaska Environmental Center.

PSR Executive Director Dr. Catherine Thomasson explains the public health costs of coal-fired power plants.

While there has been limited research in Australia on the health effects of coal mining, extensive studies in the US by the Physicians for Social Responsibility found people living in high coal-producing counties had higher rates of cardiopulmonary disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, hypertension and kidney disease compared with people in non-coal-producing counties.

PSR, acting with environmental organizations, filed a Notice of Intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to require the Agency to release rules for safe disposal of coal ash, the toxic waste left when electrical utilities burn coal.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) joined environmental groups in announcing their intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in federal court to force the release of long-awaited federal safeguards for toxic coal ash.

PSR chapters across the country celebrated the EPA’s recent finalization of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rule. This rule is a huge victory for human health, particularly for children, who can face developmental delays and mental retardation due to mercury exposure.

Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) has worked for twenty-two years to protect the public from the severe toxic effects of mercury. Mercury, a neurotoxin, damages the developing brain; fetuses, infants and children exposed to mercury can suffer lifelong developmental delays, loss of IQ and mental retardation. In adults, mercury can damage the heart and kidneys.

PSR chapters continue to make powerful strides to get the U.S. off of coal and onto clean, healthy, renewable energy sources. Just in the past week, PSR activists in Oregon, Iowa and Michigan conducted an impressive series of public events, media visits and Grand Rounds presentations.

“We can’t afford to ignore the costs of coal,” Maureen McCue, director of Iowa PSR and an adjunct clinical professor in the UI College of Public Health, told advocates Wednesday.

The coal ash spill in southeastern Wisconsin that poured heavy metals and toxicants into Lake Michigan poses potentially serious health risks to the communities in the area.

Sundance Film Festival award winning film about Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining - brought together by the Southern Arizona Green Chamber of Commerce

10 Minute presentation for public Access TV on the human halth effects of coal burning waste and emissions

Pediatrician Dr. Lynn Ringenberg of PSR Tampa Bay discusses the health threats of coal pollution.

PSR joined with the Natural Resources Defense Council in releasing a study that identifies the states with the most toxic air pollution from oil- and coal-fired power plants.

Activists from PSR and other organizations delivered more than 630,000 comments to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in Boston today to support the agency’s draft rules to significantly curb mercury pollution from coal-fired power plants.

Under the Clean Air Act, for each dollar spent to clean our air there has been a health care cost savings of about $44 – and there are still dollars to be saved. PSR board member Dr. Alan Lockwood does the math in an op-ed.

As the number of coal fired power plants worldwide has increased, so too has the demand for coal. A coal export facility has been proposed for Longview, Washington, and health experts and environmentalists are expressing grave concern.