Scientists, healthcare professionals and coalfield residents got together at Marshall University in West Virginia this past weekend to talk about the effects of coal on human health:
“When you went in the mines as a miner, you knew you were giving your health up in order to put food on the table,” [former coal miner Chuck Nelson] said.
Nelson’s had numerous surgeries to battle his health problems, but he says mountaintop coal mining’s effect on others is what caused him to change his views.
“When it starts affecting the innocent people, elderly, children, women, communities in general, when you start seeing enormous health impacts due to industrial waste from coal mines, I have to take sides,” Nelson said.
Posted by Tammy Alexander 
