[Stoves] Fwd: from K Smith [stove] Smoked out: Coal and health

[Crispin Pemberton-Pigott]

Dear Andrew

Don't deep mined coals have elevated concentrations of everything?

As to what comes out in a fire I leave that to Prof Lodoysamba who watches
the elements floating around Ulaanbaatar better than anyone. Some metals can
be evaporated and some cannot. He expressed a concern about the sudden and
quite dramatic increase in cadmium this past winter for the first time, the
root cause of which is still unknown. There is a lot of salt in the air.

Overall PM is down 30% some say. That is related to the improved coal stove
programme. Not bad for a single year in city of over a million residents.

Mercury and uranium levels are very low - always were. Radiation from
standing outside is 'baseline' (from GCR's) while radiation from being
inside a concrete building is about 1.5 times background. Radiation from the
smiles of the local people is of course, intense.

Regards
Crispin

+++++++++++

>While
>there is often a knee-jerk complaint about 'coal contains mercury' 
>there is mercury in all soil, so we expect it in coal.

There  are good reasons why deep mined coal seams will have elevated amounts
of heavy metals concentrated in them.

AJH