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Coal ash is not toxic. How do we know this?

coal ash is not toxic

In the American Coal Ash Association’s publication Ash At Work, Haley & Aldrich Principal Toxicologist Lisa JN Bradley, Ph.D., DABT, presents several scientific reasons why coal ash is not toxic. She dives into four main points:

  1. When evaluating the material as a whole, there is a wealth of information on the toxicity testing of coal ash in mammalian and aquatic species that demonstrates that coal ash is not toxic.
  2. The constituents in coal, and coal ash, are naturally occurring in the world around us.
  3. When looking at the trace elements present in coal ash on an individual basis, comparison of concentrations to screening levels developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a child’s and adult’s daily exposure to soil in a residential setting demonstrates that all are below the screening levels with the exception of the upper-bound concentrations of a few constituents.
  4. Adverse health effects can be caused by the constituents in coal ash, or coal ash itself, only if one is (a) exposed to the material, and (b) exposed at a level high enough to elicit a response.

Click here to read the full article, “Coal Ash Is Not Toxic.”