Check out this article by Willa Johnson which was published on the Huffington Post and YouthRadio.org.

My childhood memories include the smell of coal dust and the sound of diesel engines roaring. Almost every man in my family has worked in the coal industry. When I was six my favorite game was to run down to meet my dad when I heard his coal truck coming up the road. He would stop, load me up in the driver's seat with him and pretend to let me park it beside our house. I imagined I was captain of a pirate ship sailing through the seas.

It wasn't until I was older and began making friends away from my small town in Kentucky that it hit me that my childhood was unique. Part of me hated it here, especially when my grandfather talked about the "coal boom." Instead of the dreary town that I knew, he described a city with stores, roller rinks, even movie theaters; now all we have are schools and churches.

(from Kentuckians for the Commonwealth facebook page)

While the Kentucky legislature has generally ignored the economic and environmental consequences of coal, it did get a few minutes today to consider the effects on human health when the House Committee on Health and Welfare gave KFTC 20 minutes on its agenda.

Our three panelists made those 20 minutes count, focusing on the dangers not only to coal miners but to the health of whole communities in the coalfields.

KFTC member Beverly May, a nurse practitioner who works in Perry County, said she sees miners who have contracted lung diseases from exposure to coal dust and silica dust. “At home in Floyd County, I have friends in Hueysville, David and Allen that are plagued by dust from both nearby strip mines and from coal trucks passing by their homes. This is the same sandstone dust which causes silicosis in the workers, so I have to wonder, what does it do to children with asthma or elders or anyone who breathes it every day?”

She described the headwaters of Raccoon Creek, which are now polluted from nearby mining. “So I have to wonder, is the public water supply safe?”

Beverly May

“The coal industry isn’t answering these questions because they don’t have to,” said May. “This body and the federal government have not held them fully accountable.”

In a broad new study, scientists conclude that the impacts of mountaintop removal are "pervasive and irreversible."

From Yes Magazine: "Regulators Should No Longer Ignore Rigorous Science"