Coal Is Linked To Cancer, Not Wind Power – CleanTechnica

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Last Updated on: 18th August 2025, 03:54 pm

Remember when Donald Trump said he was going to bring back coal? Would that be a good idea? Considering how much fossil fuels contribute to climate change, the answer is clearly no. In fact, they are the primary contributor to climate change. 

Additionally, and maybe worse, coal is linked to cancer in various ways. An article published by Duke University about coal power plants explains, “Documented health risks from exposures to the pollutants include premature deaths, cardiovascular diseases, lung cancer, low birth weights, higher risk of developmental and behavioral disorders in infants and children, and higher infant mortality.”

If it takes 29 seconds of Googling to find such information, you might think the President could take less than one minute to learn about some of the health effects from burning coal. (Maybe he doesn’t know how to Google, though.)

A research study conducted at Harvard University also noted that coal is linked with lung cancer. “The more a country relies on coal-fired power plants to generate energy, the greater the lung cancer risk is among its citizens, according to a new study from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.”

It isn’t just the general population that is more at risk of getting sick or dying from coal power plant air pollution exposure. Coal miners are also exposed to pollutants that sicken and kill them. “We found that coal miners have significantly increased odds of death from CWP, COPD, and lung cancer compared with their counterparts in the U.S. population. This higher mortality has also worsened over time with modern miners facing greater risk than their predecessors. Miners in the Central Appalachian states of Kentucky, Virginia, and West Virginia face the most severe risk. Central Appalachian coal miners born in 1940 or later had over eight times the odds of dying from a nonmalignant respiratory disease such as black lung or COPD than their counterparts in the general population.”

When coal is burned, it generates coal ash, which is also toxic. “Now, the federal agency is finally recognizing the dangers posed by radium in coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal for electricity. It says the cancer risk from exposure to the material widely used for construction fill may be as much as 35 times higher than previously known or revealed.”

Coal ash winds up in pits and is even used in some construction and road projects. Who knows how it became legal to use it for purposes where people can be exposed to it without their knowledge.

The situation with coal ash sounds similar to the use of phosphogypsum, another toxic material, in Florida road construction. “In 2021, a tear at a PG stack facility allowed for millions of gallons of untreated wastewater to be released into Tampa Bay, devastating the clean waters of the bay and causing a red tide outbreak, killing millions of fish. Despite the environmental fallout, in 2023, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law to allow the cancer-causing material to be used in road construction. Most recently, ahead of the Trump Administration taking office, the Environmental Protection Agency authorized Mosaic’s pilot road project to use 1,200 tons of the hazardous material in Polk County, Florida.”

Trump, for all his bizarre false bluster, appears to be relentless in making up nonsense about wind power. He also doesn’t even stick to his original falsehoods. “During his conference with Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday, the second-time US president called the country’s largest renewable energy source a “con job” and blamed it for killing both humans and whales in an unfounded and unprovoked admonishment.” Germany actually generates a lot of electricity from wind turbines and solar power.

So now he says ‘wind mills’ are killing people and whales? Firstly, they aren’t wind mills, they’re wind turbines. Wind turbines are used to generate electricity. He reportedly also claimed ‘wind mills’ are driving whales crazy. Hmm, well, many wind turbines are actually on land, so no. And the offshore wind turbines don’t harm whales.

Maybe his worst fib about wind power was the reference to its “link to cancer,” which has no bearing in reality.

Will he next claim ‘wind mills’ are causing cancer in possums?

How about acknowledging all the harm caused by coal?

Not likely, eh? His communication style seems to rely on deliberate misinformation, or ‘flooding the zone with shit.’ Outrageous falsehoods appeal to emotion and generate a lot of interest on social media, which supports his goal to drown out the factual information.