Coal-burning power a public health issue.

In the August issue of The Nation's Health, there was an article about public health's growing interest in energy. The article focused primarily on oil, mentioning increasing gas costs and the rising costs that sectors such as health care will face as oil prices increase.

From a public health perspective, I am shocked that the article did not mention our nation's largest source of electricity--coal-burning power. Given that more than half of U.S. electricity comes from coal, that alone should make it of interest from an economic standpoint. Yet burning coal is a major public health hazard to all of us, and especially those of us living near extraction sites and coal-burning plants.

Burning coal is the largest source of air-borne and water-borne mercury emissions and a major contributor to many other emissions that adversely impact human health, including particulate matter. Furthermore, in extraction areas, the process often damages land and water supplies with little regard for the impact on or the economic return to communities.

I would hope that this might be more seriously discussed in the future as a core aspect to the topic of public health and energy.

Nancy L. Reinhart

Louisville, Ky.