Studies like the one published in Environmental Health Perspectives last week prove what we should already intuitively know - that coal pollution is bad for your health. The study showed that children in the city of Tongliang, China who were born after the closing of a coal burning plant had 60 percent fewer developmental problems than those children who were born before the closing. Additionally, children born after the closing of the plant had 40% lower levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the cord blood.

Peter D. Sly, head of the WHO’s Collaborating Center for Research on Children’s Environmental Health, was cautious about the results of this study however. Sly said that the results do not have implications for the more modern, coal-fired power plants in China. Apparently, the Tongliang coal plant did not have pollution control equipment to limit the emission of pollutants like carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter. [greendaily.com]

In other coal news, the Sierra Club and other environmental organizations won a rare victory in Georgia’s Fulton County Superior Court, prohibiting the building of a new coal plant in Early County. It seems one county resident was angry enough to call in a threat to the organization, claiming they were “communists” who had “screwed us for the last time.” Sounds like someone spent a little too much time playing in the coal country fallout after school.

takepart and check out one of our previous posts on the Texas Coal Wars, an inspiring story of one community’s fight for clean air.

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• Fighting Goliath: Texas Coal Wars
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• Less Coal = Better Cognition