Coal

Students and faculty from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, worked together in an innovative pilot course that led them to document a CSX coal terminal’s impact on air pollution on the Curtis Bay neighborhood.

Exposure to pollution from passing coal trains led to an increase in the estimated number of deaths, hospitalizations and asthma cases in a San Francisco Bay Area region, according to results published in Environmental Research.

Compared with fine particulate matter from any source, pollution from coal electricity-generating units heightened the risk for death by twofold among Medicare users, according to results published in Science.

A reduction in air pollution that followed the closure of a coal-coking plant in Pittsburgh was associated with a sharp decline in ED visits for CV-related causes in short- and long-term analyses, researchers reported.