Coal Mining and Its Impacts

978 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Coal mining health issues

Coal Mining and Its Impacts

Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal.

The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fun-Shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago. Since then there have been several deaths and injuries in mining coal. “In 1966, an unstable waste tip from the Merthyr Vale mine in Wales released an avalanche of sludge over the village of Aberfan, engulfing not only houses but the primary school, killing 114 children”( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). In Britain in the mid-nineteenth century it was estimated that one in every miners would face a fatal accident before completing their mining career. “1913 saw Britain’s worst mining disaster, with 439 miners killed in an explosion at the Senghenydd mine in Walse”( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165).

It is important to note that the work of a coal miner is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The life expectancy of a miner is very low. Mining coal involves going underground to remove coal on to conveyor belts. The deeper the miners go the higher the potential for a disaster becomes....

... middle of paper ...

...use surface mining which uses machine instead of people to extract coal. The coal companies could provide incentive to workers that suffer from pneumoconiosis. Protective clothing and face mask could also be enhancing to ensure workers safety in coal mining. With government policies and public support the fatalities involved with mining coal could decrease within the next few years.

Reference Page

Boyle, G., Everett, B. & Ramage, .J. (2003) Energy System and sustainability. United

Kingdom: Open University

Energy Matters(2003) Energy Matters: Fossil Fuels-coal. Retrieved February, 8, 2007.

From http://library. Thinkquest.org

Zou CQ, Gao Y, Ma Y. (1997). Pneumoconiosis in China: Asian-Pacific News Letter on

Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved February, 8, 2007, From http://www.

China/pneumoconiosis.org

Show More
Related

  • The Making Of A Hardrock Miner By Stephen Voynick

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Making of a Hardrock Miner written by Stephen M. Voynick, describes his own personal experiences as a hardrock miner in four different underground mines in the western United States, the Climax molybdenum mine in Colorado, Hecla Lakeshore Project a copper mine in Arizona, and two uranium mines in Wyoming. Rather than a book telling of the fortunes gained and lost, this book was about the relationships gained, but then also lost through mining. Stephen M. Voynick’s direct words and simple writing style provided a book that was an easy read and educational about mine work and safety.

    Read More

  • John Bartlow Martin's Case Study: The Centralia No. Five Coal Mine Disaster?

    869 Words  | 2 Pages

    John Bartlow Martin in his case study exams the Centralia No.5 coal mine disaster on March 25,1947. This explosion occurred near the town of Centralia, Illinois, killing 111 mine workers. The detonation of the mine was caused of heavy deposits coal -dust along the roadway and entrances which over time exploded. Tunnel fires killed most miners, other were trapped and died with accumulating of poison gas. The explosion of Centralia No.5 can be blamed cause of lack of mine safely which this tragedy could have been prevented if the basic standards were followed.

    Read More

  • Coal Mining Case Study

    1306 Words  | 3 Pages

    Coal is considerably one of the most important sources of energy in nature and is one the most significant sources for power generation worldwide. The excavation and importance of coal became mainstream and apparent during the Industrial Revolution of the 19th and 20th centuries.

    Read More

  • The Path of Least Resistance

    1432 Words  | 3 Pages

    Coal was the cutting edge of energy generation before any other source was extensively used. Wood, wind, water, and muscle power provided nearly all of the energy before the widespread adoption of coal. The greater energy density of coal provides a greater efficiency than these other methods of generating power; combine that greater efficiency with its ease of transportation and coal easily becomes the fuel of a nation. In its early days, coal was mined and consumed in England, a country short on wood and usable water power. This shortage in other areas left a gap that the relatively cheap coal could fill. Coal allowed for industry and manufacturing to grow and produce profits greater than almost any other industry. Coal gained its popularity mainly because it had an economic value in that it provided energy in quantities and in locations that were unobtainable and unreachable for the other energy sources at the time. This start in England led to momentum in ta...

    Read More

  • Coal Mine Collapse Research Paper

    62 Words  | 1 Pages

    Back in the early 1900s and modern-day, in mines the tunnels, shafts and caves weren't always safe to work in. Miners would often be trapped in collapsed shafts resulting in minor and major injuries, maybe even causing fatalities. For example, in the autobiography, Rocket Boys, the coal mine suffers a cave in, killing one along with Homer's dad nearly loosing an

    Read More

  • Comparing and Contrasting Jenkins' Poem "He Loved Light, Freedom and Animals" and Bush's Poem "Pneumoconiosis"

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    The dark side of mining was brought to the fore when the Aberfan disaster hit the community. Mike Jenkins talked about how his son ‘ran forever’ unaware of the undetected ‘tumour’ that was lurking within the mountain. He describes the danger as a ‘tumour’ like that of a tumour in a body that is undetectable until it is too late and the danger cannot be averted. The other analogy with the tumour is that it is terminal and eventually will kill the patient.

    Read More

  • Death In Victorian Era Essay

    592 Words  | 2 Pages

    There were many miners from the start of 1851 and many that had died from tragic things. 15 Miners had died from stone and coal from working in the mines and forty nine from explosions. Many miners died in the hospitals, mines, explosions, and sundries. Nineteen died from sundries and five from shaft.There were a small number of deaths from shafts though.”There are not many accidents in the shafts considering how deep they are and the speed at which the cages travel up and down”. This means Also all these deaths they were miners, miners that had families that loved them and did a lot of mourning over

    Read More

  • Massey Energy Corporate Social Responsibility

    828 Words  | 2 Pages

    Very seldom are there rig explosions on land thus creating a safer working environment for the miners. Granted there is a great deal of training to be a roughneck and work a rig i.e. safety and procedures, it is still a far safer profession. Coal burns for a long time and leaves an enormous carbon footprint. Natural gas burns much cleaner, making it a far superior fossil fuel from that aspect alone. That and the United States possesses one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, thereby creating sustainability of jobs and bettering environmental

    Read More

  • Coal Mining And Explain How Humans Affect The Lithosphere

    847 Words  | 2 Pages

    Inadequate care and storage of the waste from the coal can affect the ecosystem around it and the creatures living there. The pollution from one coal mine can affect many places through the water and the air making it more dangerous to human

    Read More

  • The Future of Coal Energy

    3652 Words  | 8 Pages

    As the world is literally heating up, so is the pressing, controversial topic of climate change. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) publishes a climate change report every 5 years; the 2014 report is the most alarming report thus far. The long report is the collaborative work of more than 800 climate scientists and governmental representatives. The report is shocking, and it should be. The IPCC concludes that human activity is the cause of climate change, just as smoking causes cancer. The increasing living standards of industrialized nations are resulting in an increased use of coal energy. Along with the growing population, coal is being used at extravagant rates and increasing. Unfortunately, coal poses a threat to the future of humanity, and we are the direct cause (Richardson, 2014).

    Read More

  • The Mining Industry in South Australia

    984 Words  | 2 Pages

    Firstly, South Australia’s mining industry immensely increases job opportunities in the society. For instance, South Australia is hosting 34 emerging minerals developments indicating the demand for skilled mine workers of around 14,800 personnel as stated by Validakis (2013). On the contrary, mining industry negatively impacts the South Australian economy if it is compared to the other states, as it has reduced the state’s Gross State Product (GSP) growth by 0.16 per cent. This is due to competitions with other states that have larger exposure to mining (Duc, Bailey & Marshall 2013). Nonetheless, about 15,000 new mining jobs in South Australia will need to be filled over the next seven years according to a report from iMINCO (2013). Moreover, the number of jobs is expected to more than double by year 2030.

    Read More

  • Horrible Working Conditions During the Industrial Revolution

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The working conditions in factories were so bad during this time that it often led to sickness, injuries and death. People who worked in mines had to face many dangerous disadvantages every day. The working conditions in mines were very unsafe, with top rock falling on top of workers, often crushing them to death. The powder, smoke, and bad air caused miners to suffer from lung diseases such as “black lung”. Children also began to work in mines and lost their education at young ages. These children often developed health issues such as “miners’ asthma” due to the bad air in the mine. Not only was the work laborious and dangerous, but miners also received low pay. The majority of profits went to those who owned the mine (Doc 1).

    Read More

  • coal

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    A mineral of fossilized carbon, or better known as ‘coal’, is one of the world’s leading sources of energy for the production of Electricity. Although coal is utilized for many other requirements such as refining metal, it is predominately burned for the production of heat and electricity. Coal is a fossil fuel, meaning that the process in which it became too be was through the decomposition of dead plant and animal matter which is referenced as ‘peat’. Different forms of Coal are created when Geological processes produce pressure to the peat which later leads to the formation of coal (Refer to figure 1).

    Read More

  • Carbon Compounds

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

     in which coal is heated in the absence of air, liberated many carbon compounds

    Read More

  • Fossil Fuels and Alternative Energy Sources

    2001 Words  | 5 Pages

    There are three types of fossil fuels- coal, crude oil, and natural gas. Coal was formed very slowly. Even the “newest” coal we use today was formed a million years ago. Most of the coal we use was formed 300 million years ago, when the Earth was covered with swamps. When plants and trees died, they sank to the bottoms of the swamps. These plants and trees were layered on top of each other, forming a substance called peat. Peat is considered the first stage in coal formation. It is a mixture of water, leaves, braches, and other plant debris. Over time, the Earth changed, and deposits of sand, clay, and other minerals were formed, burying the peat. Sedimentary rock...

    Read More

More about Coal Mining and Its Impacts

Open Document