Yet another reason to move beyond coal is how dangerous digging it up is for miners, particularly in states with lax safety standards. Recently, 152 miners were trapped in a flooded mine in Shanxi province. Earlier this month, 31 miners died in a mine flood in Inner Mongolia.
Official Chinese statistics showed that 2,631 people died in 2009, and 3,215 in 2008.
The human cost of coal mining is also substantial in the United States. In a report entitled: “Mortality in Appalachian Coal Mining Regions: The Value of Statistical Life Lost,” Michael Hendryx and Melissa Ahern conclude that the $8 billion per year of economic benefits provided to Appalachia by coal production are dwarfed by the $42 billion cost of premature deaths.
They estimated the number of excess deaths in coal mining areas as being between 3,975 and 10,923, for the period from 1985 to 2005.
25 miners killed in West Virginia explosion
Four are missing in the nation’s worst mine disaster since 1984. The facility had been repeatedly cited for dangerous conditions.
Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington – Twenty-five miners were killed Monday after a coal mine explosion deep in the rugged hills of West Virginia, marking the worst U.S. mine disaster since 1984 and raising questions about safety precautions at one of the nation’s largest coal producers.
The search for survivors at the Upper Big Branch mine was called off early Tuesday morning, although four miners remained unaccounted for, according to Jeff Gillenwater, spokesman for Massey Energy Co., the mine owner.
Distraught families and others in the tight-knit Appalachian mining community wept and hugged nearby as rescue teams penetrated the deep shafts and dark tunnels, and as the death toll steadily rose through the long night.
The explosion about 3 p.m. Monday had disabled communication lines, including wireless systems, inside the vast underground complex, officials said.
The West Virginia mine disaster
Peril in the labyrinth
What caused America’s worst mining accident in 25 years?
Apr 8th 2010 | NAOMA, WEST VIRGINIA | From The Economist print edition
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