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.

Thanks to a negotiated agreement, Washington State’s only coal-fired power plant is now scheduled to slash its generating capacity in half by 2020 and close entirely by 2025.

Energy policy is health policy, writes PSR member Dr. Howard Frumkin in this op-ed.

In a just-released report, PSR and two environmental organizations have revealed that most of the chromium that leaches from coal ash into ground and surface water takes the form of highly carcinogenic hexavalent chromium. Long known to cause lung cancer when inhaled, hexavalent chromium has been shown to cause stomach cancer in humans, and intestinal and oral cancers in laboratory animals, when ingested in water.

A bill introduced Thursday in the state House will protect Washington families from the harmful health effects of burning coal for electricity and help build the economy of the community now hosting the state’s lone coal-burning power plant.

A new report Coal Ash, the toxic threat to our health and environment has been published by Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) in the USA. It is an analysis of the health hazards of the legacy of coal combustion, the coal ash dumps that epitomise power generation landscapes.

About a third of the nation’s coal ash storage sites are wet ponds. “These are the ones that have the potential of a catastrophe such as we saw in Tennessee,” said Barbara Gottlieb, who directs the coal program Code Black for the Physicians for Social Responsibility.

PSR mobilized health professionals to testify against unsafe coal ash disposal at EPA hearings around the country. PSR also wrote and distributed a new study, “Coal Ash: The Toxic Threat to Our Health and Environment.”

PSR is mentioned in this article on the environmental impacts of coal ash.

The non-profit health advocacy group Physicians for Social Responsibility say ash dumps pose “an acute risk of cancer and neurological effects as well as many other negative health impacts.”

Over the last year and a half, at least 10 power companies have announced plans to close more than three dozen of their oldest, least efficient coal-burning generators by 2019. A few are being replaced by new, more efficient coal plants, but many more are being replaced by gas-fired plants.

Cherie Eichholz, Executive Director of Washington PSR, explains the dangerous health impacts of coal plants.

PSR national board member and Washington PSR President Steven Gilbert, PhD, DABT, explains the dangerous health effects of hazardous coal ash waste and urges the EPA to enact strong regulations on coal ash disposal.

A recent report by the group Physicians for Social Responsibility titled "Coal Ash -- The toxic threat to our health and environment" provides an overview of the specific dangers linked with coal ash and the scale of the problem in the United States.

PSR chapters, board members and staff have been raising concerns nationwide about the health impacts of coal ash disposal. Barbara Gottlieb was interviewed on the Knoxville, TN NPR station the morning of the final EPA public hearing on coal ash regulation.

PSR met recently with the Environmental Protection Agency to present our new report on coal ash and health and to voice support for strong, health-protective regulation of coal ash disposal. Our presentation focused on concerns that highlight the need for robust regulation at the federal level – including, in some cases, steps that go beyond the EPA’s current proposal.

Pilsen’s air is dirty. While hundreds of runners gasped for it, passing the Chicago Marathon’s 20-mile marker Sunday, just blocks away dozens were rallying to keep it clean.

Dr. Steven Gilbert, president of Washington PSR, discusses the health care costs of coal plants.

Dr. Steven Gilbert, president of Washington PSR, explains the health impacts of coal plants.

PSR's Barbara Gottlieb discusses the need for coal ash regulation in this article on an EPA coal ash hearing in Kentucky.