Coal Is By Far the Deadliest Energy Source

For every person killed by nuclear power generation, 4,000 die due to coal, adjusted for the same amount of power produced. Not included in this chart are deaths due to global political instability involving oil fields, deaths from coastal flooding and deaths due to environmental impacts yet unmeasured, all of which skew it even more.

The World Health Organization compiled peer reviewed health studies on air pollution from many institutions. Occupational health and safety statistics track the deaths of workers in the different industries. About 1 million deaths/year can be attributed to coal air pollution. Coal generates about 6,200 TWh out of the world total of 15,500 TWh of electricity. This would be 161 deaths per TWh.

Energy Source	Death Rate per TWh
Coal	161
Oil	36
Biofuel/Biomass	12
Natural Gas	4
Hydro	1.4
Solar	0.44
Wind	0.15
Nuclear	0.04

These figures do not include deaths caused during transportation. The more trucking and rail transport is used then the more deaths there are. In the USA, moving 1.2 billion tons of coal takes up 40% of the freight rail traffic and a few percent of the trucking.

As people debate the costs and benefits, the pros and cons, of various energy sources to power our future, we should all remember: coal is dangerous, dirty, and not as "cheap" as advertised. Our focus should be on phasing out the most dangerous energy sources first.

We've been led to believe that we can’t live without coal - that it is cheap, creates jobs, keeps our economy churning, and can be "clean" - when in fact none of those things are hard and fast truths. Rather, they're mostly lies. Coal kills. It's not as cheap as advertised, especially when all of the external costs (health, lost jobs to labor-light mountaintop removal mining, ecosystem degradation, water contamination, and so on) are considered. Not to mention it's a ticking time bomb for our atmosphere and climate.