Letter: Coal and diesel fumes are toxic

As a mother, a grandmother and a registered nurse, I favor clean energy, not more coal trains.

People with lung disease, especially children, cannot thrive in polluted air. Pulling heavier coal loads means extra diesel fumes in the air, with diesel’s arsenic, formaldehyde and benzene.

Coal use is a serious problem. We are not discussing coal-burning stoves to heat homes, as done 70 years ago. We are closing coal-burning plants here because coal and dust contain lead, arsenic and mercury. Coal spouts radioactive substances when burning.

Fishermen and tourists may stay away if we pollute the Gorge with more neurotoxic mercury.

Selling American coal cheaply to burn in factories in Communist China kills many people there, in black air towns. We, here, have freedom to act. We will “reap what we sow.”

Dorethea M. Simone

CAMAS