Coal & Mercury
Dirty Coal: From Mining to Mercury Contamination – Alaska to Asia and Back
- About the call
- Presenter
- Call Recording / Podcast
- Jamey Duhamel’s presentation Slides
- Dr. Gilbert’s presentation Slides
- Resources
- Take Action
About the call:
Dirty Coal: From Mining to Mercury Contamination – Alaska to Asia and Back
Listen to this one-hour teleconference with Dr. Steven G. Gilbert, Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders (INND) to trace what happens from the time dirty coal is mined until it is burned to release the mercury that blows our way from coal-fired power plants in China. Dr. Gilbert discusses how mercury biomagnifies and bioaccumulates in Pacific fish and the health effects of mercury exposure in children and adults. Jamey Duhamel, Director of the Castle Mountain Coalition discusses coal mining proposals in Alaska for export. This call was recorded on November 13th, 2013.
This call is presented by ACAT’s Alaska Collaborative on Health and the Environment (CHE-AK).
Presenters:
Steven G. Gilbert, PhD, DABT is Director and Founder of the Institute of Neurotoxicology and Neurological Disorders (INND), and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences, University of Washington. His research has focused on neurobehavioral effects of low-level exposure to lead and mercury on the developing nervous system. His book, A Small Dose of Toxicology- The Health Effects of Common Chemicals was published in 2004 and the 2nd edition is available for free as an E-book. He recently started the wiki based web site Toxipedia which includes a suite of sites that put scientific information in the context of history, society, and culture.
Listen to the recording of Dr. Gilbert’s CHE-AK call The Toll of Alaska’s Coal: Health Impacts of Coal Export, recorded January 23, 2013. Visit the webpage for that call.
Resources:
A Small Dose of Toxicology The Health Effects of Common Chemicals 3rd edition by Steven G. Gilbert explores the principles of toxicology by examining the health effects of common chemical agents. Every day, we come into contact with many relatively harmless substances that could, at certain concentrations, be toxic. This applies not only to obvious candidates such as asbestos, lead, mercury, and gasoline, but also to such common compounds as caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, and headache tablets. While the field of toxicology has numerous technical books devoted to aspects of biology, chemistry, and mechanisms of action, A Small Dose of Toxicology places toxicology within the framework of our daily lives.
- Alaska Community Action on Toxics Coal blog Protect AK Health
- Alaska Coal: North to the Future Beyond Coal
- Coal Train Facts
- Coal Ash: The Toxic Threat to Our Health and Environment (PSR and Earthjustice)
- The Silent Epidemic: Coal and the Hidden Threat to Health, by Alan J. Lockwood (MIT Press)
- A small dose of Toxicology 2nd Edition, by Steven G. Gilbert (Free e-book Healthy World Press)
- Coal Blooded: Putting Profits Before People by – NAACP, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Indigenous Environmental Network
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