Coal poses major health threat, physicians group warns

"Each step of the coal lifecycle - mining, transportation, washing, combustion, and disposing of post-combustion wastes - impacts human health," says the report.

Mineworkers themselves and their communities are among the leading victims, the report says.

"Coal mining leads U.S. industries in fatal injuries and is associated with chronic health problems among miners, such as black lung disease, which causes permanent scarring of the lung tissues," it notes. In addition, communities near coal mines breathe in toxic coal dust as a result of blasting, collapse of abandoned mines, and dispersal of dust by coal trucks and trains.

Burning of coal, primarily by coal-fired power plants, poses an enormous national health threat, the report says. The process releases mercury, toxic particles, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide, and dozens of other substances known to be hazardous to human health.

The report says, "Coal combustion in particular contributes to diseases affecting large portions of the U.S. population, including asthma, lung cancer, heart disease, and stroke, compounding the major public health challenges of our time."