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I don't doubt there are bad places and bad factories that pollute. But the parent post made it sound as if literally everybody is affected by it, including people not living in SLC or near any coal plants. Which exactly what got me interested to see the data about how I could be affected (curiously, though not unexpectedly, it was received by some as if I was somehow defending coal burning by just asking to see the data that explain how harmful it is).

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Are you familiar with the recommendation that children and pregnant women limit their intake of seafood to one serving per week, because of mercury exposure?

Almost half of that mercury comes from coal emissions.

That's an entire type of food being significantly contaminated across the planet. And that's just one of the many nasty things emitted by coal burning.

It is not at all an exaggeration to say that the entire planet is affected by burning coal.

And that is the reason why all coal burning plants are being required to retrofit with equipment to capture mercury and other toxic metals (along with retrofits for SOx and NOx). But that is not good enough.

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