Quantifying the emission’s impact of coal mining activities on the environment and human health in process

Abstract

Discharges and emissions in the coal mining process have a strong effect both on the environment and on human health. This problem is usually be a negative one and has only been recognized qualitatively, due to the lack of effective quantitative methods. Based on emergy theory and accounting methodology, a set of quantitative methods for accounting the environmental support due to pollutants emissions was first introduced. Then impacts on environment and effects on human health were quantified using the unified units. The results indicated that water pollutants caused more impacts on the environment than air pollutants did, i.e., more environmental contributions are needed to dilute and absorb water pollutants. The occupation of land caused by coal mining gangue waste stacking has led to a huge loss of environmental services over the years. Moreover, the potential damage on the human condition health caused by CO2 through climate change cannot be ignored. Finally, the impacts of mining activities on environmental and human health in unified units are shown to provide a quantitative insight into the disadvantage of coal mining. The comparable results of the method indicate the different influence of various pollutants and the contribution of ‘natural capital’ directly. This work is a part of ongoing thermodynamic input-output analysis and life cycle analysis of coal mining systems (which are in process.)