The risks have now been largely controlled in developed nations by dust suppression, ventilation and respiratory protection [70,71]. For surface mine accidents, flying debris is the most common cause. Failing to keep a safe distance from the blast area or a too powerful charge are often the reasons for this type of death. In underground mining, premature explosions and misfired explosions are the leading causes of death…. Coal mining is still dangerous.
In , West Virginia had the worst coal mining disaster in the US in 40 years, when an explosion killed 29 people. That year, 3, people died in coal mining accidents. Coal mines have continued to have fires and explosions, killing hundreds of miners over the years…. The average life expectancy in the coal mines for those starting work at 15 y was found to be Black lung disease is considered a job-related illness. The outcome of all this is desolate land that remains polluted long after a coal mine closes its doors.
Though many nations need recovery plans for coal mining locations; undoing all the environmental harms to water supplies, devastated habitats, and poor air quality is a lengthy and tricky task. This land disorder is on a massive scale. In the US, between the years and , coal mining transformed around 2. Efforts to re-seed land ruined by coal mining are problematic since the mining procedure has so exhaustively spoiled the soil. For instance, in Montana, U.
In China, coal mining has tarnished the quality of land of an estimated 3. The general repair rate the percentage of reclaimed land to the total destroyed land of mine wasteland was merely about 10—12 percent. Strip mining is only a temporary use of land, so it is imperative to restore the land as soon as mining is over to save the land. The correct reclamation of mined land must be decided in terms of local physical and socio-economic circumstances. One more thing that helps is to cut the amount of minerals you use.
An example of this is to avail the public transportation or ride a bike to and from places. Avail the large number of renewable resources available to us today.
We can use them as an alternative to burning coal which releases loads of greenhouse gas emissions and eats up our natural resources. An example of such recycling is tin cans, which use salvaged tin instead of mining more tin to manufacture new cans. My love for nature is not newfound. I have lived on the countryside for over a decade of my life where I realized how human activities impacted the environment.
Later during my stint in medical school, I realized that many of our health concerns originate from neglecting our environmental responsibilities and this was just not sustainable in the long run. Raising awareness, not locally but globally, was the mission.
This led to the foundation of EnvironmentBuddy! Your email address will not be published. Environment Buddy. E Environment. What is Strip Mining? The Strip Mining Method All surface or strip mining initially eradicates the vegetation, rock sediment, and soil spread over the surface to uncover and remove coal from an underground mineral seam or coal deposit.
Careful surface mining tries to reduce the side effects of this extraction through some basic steps: Primarily, the surface foliage trees, bushes, etc. Then, the operator does away with the topsoil, typically by scrapers or bulldozers and loaders.
After eliminating the overburden, the uncovered coal seam is commonly fractured by blasting. The operator then piles the fractured coal onto trucks or conveyor belts and tows it away. Special supervision might be obligatory if any of the overburden has toxic contents, like acid or alkaline producing matters.
Any surplus overburden that remains once the mined area is fully backfilled Eastern mines usually have considerable additional spoil is dumped in a fill. Lastly, the operator reallocates the topsoil and seeds and revegetates the mined area. Types of Surface Mining Area Mining Area mining is the system most regularly applied in the flat or mildly rolling countryside of the Midwest and Western United States.
Share 0. Tweet 0. Pin it 0. In room-and-pillar mines, columns of coal are left to support the ground above during the initial mining process, then they are often taken out and the mine is left to collapse, which is known as subsidence.
In long-wall mines, mechanical shearers strip the coal from the mines. It is these effects of mining that nobody sees but are the most troubling of all. Environmental impact of coal mining. About coal mining impacts. Coal and the environment. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.
Destruction and poison linger Bad mining practices can ignite coal fires, which can burn for decades, release fly ash and smoke laden with greenhouse gasses and toxic chemicals. There are two widely used ways of mining: strip mining and underground mining.
Strip mining Strip mining involves scraping away earth and rocks to get to coal buried near the surface. Impacts of strip mining Strip mining destroys landscapes, forests and wildlife habitats at the site of the mine when trees, plants, and topsoil are cleared from the mining area.
This in turn leads to soil erosion and destruction of agricultural land. When rain washes the loosened top soil into streams, sediments pollute waterways. This can hurt fish and smother plant life downstream, and cause disfiguration of river channels and streams, which leads to flooding.
There is an increased risk of chemical contamination of ground water when minerals in upturned earth seep into the water table, and watersheds are destroyed when disfigured land loses the water it once held.
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