Environmental Health Hazards in Coal Mines with Special Reference to Radioactivity and its Control - A Review

Abstract

The development of a country depends very much on the advancement of its industrialization. However, as a result of mass scale industrialization, the world's environment is being polluted day by day and endangering the existence of living beings on Earth. This has attracted the attention of environmental engineers, medical practitioners, planners, and researchers throughout the world. Attempts are being made to make air, water, and the atmosphere clean and to prevent likely hazards arising out of various industrial activities. In addition, radiation from natural sources is all around us and has been from the advent of time. It is responsible for the radiation exposure of most of the population. Coal miners have small occupational exposures that arise from naturally occurring radioactive substances under ground. The predominant source of natural radiation present in coal mines is radon gas. This article describes the origin of radon, radiological hazard, and an attempt has been made to review the status of the problem likely to be caused by the different radioactive elements present in Indian coal and coal ash and allied coal-based industries.