‘When You’re in the Pit or the Pub, They’re All Mates’: Coal Mining Communities in the East Midlands

Occupational exposure limits for respirable coal dust are based on exposure during working hours, but coal miners may experience additional community-based exposures during nonworking hours. We analyzed Australia National Pollutant Inventory (NPI) data for the years 2008–2018 to estimate air pollutants (metals, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter ≤ 10 micrometers (PM10) and ≤2.5 micrometers (PM2.5)) originating from coal mines. PM10 levels from community-based air monitors in Queensland and New South Wales were also compared between mining and nonmining communities. Results indicated that tons of coal mined increased over the study period, and that levels of particulate matter, metals, and nitrogen oxides increased significantly over time as well. Coal mines accounted for 42.1% of national PM10 air emissions from NPI sites. PM2.5 from coal mines accounted for 19.5% of the national total, metals for 12.1%, and nitrogen oxides for 10.1%. Coal mining occurred in 57 different post codes; the 20 coal-mining post codes with the highest PM10 emissions were home to 160,037 people. Emissions of all studied pollutants were significantly higher from coal mining sites than from other types of NPI sites. Results from community-based air monitoring stations indicated significantly higher population PM10 exposure in coal mining communities than in nonmining communities. The health of the public at large is impacted by coal mining, but to the extent that miners also live near coal mining operations, their total exposure is underestimated by consideration of exposure only during working hours.

Residents of coal mining communities include both coal mine workers and local residents, making the guidance of public opinion essential for maintaining social stability in such communities. Therefore, this paper utilizes an improved word2Vec model to extract factors influencing public opinion from a large number of accident cases. It then develops a coal mining community public opinion dissemination model based on game theory, focusing on two groups: official media and opinion leaders. By integrating cellular automata (CA) and agent-based modeling, this study examines the dissemination patterns of public opinion in coal mining communities. The simulation results and practical applications indicate that public opinion in coal mining communities spreads rapidly and can be effectively shaped. Positive guidance from official media plays a crucial role in directing public opinion. However, as interactions evolve, public opinion dynamics may become less favorable. Strengthening the intensity of positive guidance from official media further enhances its ability to shape and influence public opinion in coal mining communities. This research provides a novel perspective and methodology for studying community safety management, offering significant theoretical and practical implications.

Growing global concern over the impacts of climate change, attributable largely to fossil fuel energy sources, has led to the widely shared goal for a 'just transition' to cleaner energy and reduced dependence on carbon-based fuels. As the world's 14th biggest CO2 emitter and being particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, South Africa must embark on a just transition pathway. This paper reviews expected coal mine closures and associated community vulnerabilities and local governance challenges in South Africa. Decommissioning schedules for all coal-fired power stations and operating coal mines are plotted, and 69 mining host communities and 21 municipalities are mapped, classified, and described. Community socio-economic profiles are measured using a set of SDG indicators and census data and municipalities assessed through financial audits. Our research shows that five coal-fired power plants (8.9 GW) and 15 coal mines (29.5 Mt/a) willprobably close by 2030, and a further four plants (14 GW) and 23 mines (106 Mt/a) by 2040. Thus, the shift to cleaner energy will likely occur without the premature closures implied by the just transition. The impact of mine closure on the 2.5 million residents of host communities will be significant, particularly as levels of income, employment, and education are already very low and many municipalities are in financial distress. The South African approach to the just transition needs to take local realities into account and the narrative must support an effective transition that does not undermine energy security and economic growth. Keywords: just transition, South Africa, coal mining, mining communities, energy, mine closure

Global energy transition and decarbonisation efforts in the face of climate change present a new challenge for coal-based resource communities. While many resource-based communities, and coal mining communities have become accustomed to the boom-bust cycles of resource extraction, the transition to alternative energy sources presents unique challenges to coal mining communities. In this paper, we document the long process of transition in the coal mining town of Blackball in New Zealand. Blackball has a long history of mining, yet it is also a community where the local mines on which the town depended have been closed for 50 years. The legacy and heritage of coal mining has since shaped efforts at diversification and revitalization, highlighting the tensions between path-dependency and new path creation in the shaping of the future of Blackball. We draw on concepts from evolutionary economic geography to highlight how iterative processes of path creation and path dependency have played out and identify the important role of community agency and external support in mediating those processes. The temporal component of Blackball’s coal transition presents useful lessons for other mining communities which currently face closure.

This article presents the first systematic study of the spatial transmission of the 1929–33 epidemic of meningococcal meningitis and its association with local coal mining communities in three adjacent high incidence counties of England; Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, and the West Riding of Yorkshire. Drawing on a robust method of spatial epidemiological analysis (swash‐backwash model), we demonstrate a gradient response with local levels of employment in coal mining for each of three key parameters of the epidemic wave: spatial velocity of transmission; duration of infectivity; and spatial reach. Partial least squares regression analysis identifies the relatively young and fertile demographic of local mining communities as the principal determinant of the resulting epidemic burden. Other sociodemographic parameters, including established risk factors for invasive meningococcal disease (low social class, high residential density, and overcrowding) are found to play little, or no, role in the spatial distribution of the disease. Our findings have importance for understanding the historic links between the coal mining industry and epidemic meningococcal meningitis, and point to possible present‐day opportunities for intervention through the designation of coal mining communities as defined risk groups for meningococcal vaccines.

Manunggal Jaya village is one of the food sheds that are in Kalimantan Timur. But as the age developed this village changed.This is a sign of the farming land that has begun to narrow. Irrigation was disrupted due to coal mining activities and communities exposed to waste from the mining. Farming land that began to shrink, irrigation disrupted due to coal mining activities and communities exposed to waste from the mining. As for the study's purpose: (1) to know the multi-use farm program in the middle of the coal mine, and (2) knew the combined strategy of farm groups to empower farmers in the middle of the coal mine area. This research uses descriptive qualitative methods through observation techniques, interviews and documentation. The results of research obtained by researchers in accordance with observation programs of empowerment cannot be felt by any farmer and are not carried out evenly because of minimal skills of agricultural and facility skills. The program implemented by the combined farming groups is the training of themes and materials organized according to existing agricultural potential, like giving the training of the stool dose according to the instructions, control of pests and diseases on plants, Home Food Training, and training system plant training line legowo. Whereas the combined strategy of the multi-purpose farming group is the development of human resources, The development of the group, The capital of the world is the, development of productive activities, and providing the right information for.

Personal exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Appalachian mining communities

This article investigates how the health disparities of Appalachian coal miners and coal mining communities could be decreased through a partnership with occupational health nurses. On-site health clinics managed by occupational health nurses working in the coal mining industry are proposed as a means to improve health care outcomes. Health effects, economic considerations, environmental impacts, and U.S. coal mining legislation and regulation are examined. An epidemiological approach is presented to the unique health effects experienced by Appalachian coal miners and coal mining communities within the context of existent socioeconomic disparities. The long-standing health crisis in Appalachian coal mining communities requires a multidisciplinary approach led by occupational health nurses.

This article investigates how the health disparities of Appalachian coal miners and coal mining communities could be decreased through a partnership with occupational health nurses. On-site health clinics managed by occupational health nurses working in the coal mining industry are proposed as a means to improve health care outcomes. Health effects, economic considerations, environmental impacts, and U.S. coal mining legislation and regulation are examined. An epidemiological approach is presented to the unique health effects experienced by Appalachian coal miners and coal mining communities within the context of existent socioeconomic disparities. The long-standing health crisis in Appalachian coal mining communities requires a multidisciplinary approach led by occupational health nurses.

This study investigates the indoor air quality in coal mining communities during wet and dry seasons in the coal mining belt of Kogi East, Kogi State, Nigeria. The research was conducted at selected coal mining sites, specifically the Ika-Ogboyaga and Okaba mine sites, using a randomized sampling method. Indoor air quality data were collected from fifteen households in Ika and Odele villages within a 500-meter radius of the mining sites. Monitoring was performed using the Gasman autosampler to measure concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), sulphur dioxide (SO₂), carbon monoxide (CO), hydrogen sulphide (H₂S), and particulate matter (PM₂.5 and PM₁₀). Data collection spanned 7 days each for the wet season (October 2022) and the dry season (February 2023), with measurements taken thrice daily. Meteorological parameters such as temperature, wind speed, wind direction, and relative humidity were also recorded. The results indicated higher pollutant concentrations during the dry season. For instance, PM₂.5 levels in Ika during the wet season were 45.3±0.25 μg/m³ (morning), 74.6±0.49 μg/m³ (afternoon), and 56.26±0.1 μg/m³ (evening), while dry season values were 48.32±1.74 μg/m³ (morning), 74.12±0.30 μg/m³ (afternoon), and 56.9±0.75 μg/m³ (evening). Similarly, PM₁₀ levels in Ika during the wet season were 73.61±1.44 μg/m³ (morning), 105.53±0.44 μg/m³ (afternoon), and 99.01±0.5 μg/m³ (evening), whereas dry season values were 75.47±0.70 μg/m³ (morning), 102.08±1.48 μg/m³ (afternoon), and 96.98±1.33 μg/m³ (evening). CO concentrations in Ika during the wet season were 4.22±0.22 ppm (morning), 6.13±0.3 ppm (afternoon), and 3.1±0.05 ppm (evening), and during the dry season, they were 5.55±1.74 ppm (morning), 8.11±1.46 ppm (afternoon), and 7.04±1.184 ppm (evening). Meteorological analysis showed that the dry season had higher wind speeds (2-4 m/s) compared to the wet season (0-2 m/s), and lower relative humidity (mean of 51.18%) compared to the wet season (mean of 77.55%). Air Quality Index (AQI) values indicated that PM₂.5 levels in both seasons were unhealthy (155.8-156.4 in the wet season and 151-200 in the dry season), while PM₁₀ levels were moderate (65.5-66.9 in the wet season and 51-100 in the dry season). CO, NO₂, and SO₂ levels generally remained within permissible limits set by the World Health Organization (WHO). Statistical analysis revealed significant seasonal variations in the concentrations of the monitored pollutants, with higher levels typically recorded during the dry season.

This book contains descriptions of 432 coal-mining museums, heritage centres, archives and memorials, and preserved colliery sites in 48 countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Australia, Europe and New Zealand. This is not a history of coal mining, but rather a catalogue of how museums around the world have portrayed the history of coal mining, colliers and mining communities. This includes subjects such as the development and dissemination of new technology, features commonly found on the surface of mines, disasters, transport, women and children working underground, working conditions, strikes and trade unions, and slavery and forced labour, especially in wartime and by certain countries in particular. There is a detailed introduction, including discussion of the types of buildings used for museums and collections such as art and fossils, and a concordance of 18 items found commonly at the sites described, including those with a genuine or a simulated underground experience and opencast sites open to the public.

Contents: Introduction, Stefan Berger So many cases but so little comparison: problems of comparing mineworkers, Andrew Taylor Two faces of King Coal: the impact of historiographical traditions on comparative history in the Ruhr and South Wales, Stefan Berger and Neil Evans The myth of the radical miner, Dick Geary Cameras in the coalfields: photographs as evidence for comparative coalfield history, Janet Wells Greene A mining film without a disaster is like a Western without a shoot-out: representations of coal mining communities in feature films, Bert Hogenkamp Modernity or 'slaves of the lamp'? Independence and control in two state coal mining communities in Victoria, Australia, Meredith Fletcher A comparison between the Richmond coal basin and Pennsylvania's anthracite fields: slave labour, free labour and the political economy, Sean Patrick Adams Nigerian coal miners, protest and gender, 1914-49: the Iva Valley mining community, Carolyn A. Brown Everyone black? Ethnic, class and gender identities at street level in a Belgian mining town, 1930-50, Leen Beyers Outsiders: trade union responses to Polish and Italian coal miners in two British coalfields, Stephen Catterall and Keith Gildart The struggle for Polish autonomy and the question of integration in the Ruhr and Northeastern Pennsylvania, 1880-1914, Brian McCook Networking among Welsh coal miners in 19th-century America, Ronald L. Lewis Gender and ethnicity in Japan's Chikuho coalfield, W. Donald Smith Coal mining, foreign workers and mine safety: steps towards European integration, 1946-85, Rene Leboutte A moral economy, an isolated mass and paternalized migrants: Transvaal colliery strikes, 1925-49, Peter Alexander Trade union development in the Ruhr and South Wales, 1890-1914, Leighton James Coalfield leaders, trade unionism and communist politics: exploring Arthur Horner and Abe Moffat, John McIlroy and Alan Campbell Index.

The shadow of the Pithead: Understanding social and political attitudes in former coal mining communities in the UK

The study evaluates the socioeconomic dynamics and their impact on life expectancy in coal mining communities in Colombia, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), assessing the relationship between production, occupation, accident rates, mortality and royalties. Univariate, bivariate, path analysis and ARIMA models were used to identify patterns and projections. The results show a positive constraint between coal production and royalties, which is negative with the occupation, accident, and mortality rates. Despite the revenues generated, no improvements in the quality of life of mining communities are observed; the poor use of royalties reflects a lack of effective strategies to convert mining revenues into sustainable enhancements for local communities. It highlights the rush for more effective public policies to ensure that economic benefits are aligned with improvements in communities’ health, safety and quality of life. In the future, greater alignment with the SDGs, particularly SDG 3 (Health and Well-being) and SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), will depend on a sustainable approach that prioritises investment in social infrastructure and the equitable distribution of resources derived from mining, thereby addressing current disparities.

This essay tries to analyze about participatory communication, especially those currently practiced in coal mining communities in Samarinda, East Kalimantan Province, Indonesia. In addition, specific practices to facilitate participatory communication are identified and discussed. This essay is based on the author's research on environmental conflicts in coal mining areas. The conclusion of this essay is that community participatory communication in coal mining industry area is still at a pseudo participatory stage.