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Question from curious

We are contemplating purchasing a home and I just found out that the next street over used to be old coal mines a hundred years ago. I believe they refer to them as culm banks. People have been living in the area for hundreds of years, but I was curious if living so close to one of these culm banks would be dangerous to our health, especially our children. The house we are purchasing was NOT built on this, but it was previously just wooded ground. Thanks

Debra’s Answer

I didn’t know what a culm bank was, so I looked it up. It’s a bank of fine-grained anthracite coal produced as a waste byproduct in the mining process. So it’s not a coal mine, it’s a pile of very fine coal. It may have plants growing on it, and look like a natural hill, but it’s a pile of coal underneath.

Now, is it harmful to health to live near one?

Researching the answer to that question, I came across an interesting passage from a book called Environmental Justice by Peter S. Wenz.

He says:

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