Coal stoves linked to growth problems in kids

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Children raised in homes heated by coal may suffer stunted growth from prolonged exposure to indoor air pollution, according to a study of families in the Czech Republic.

By age 3, children who lived in households where coal was used for heat were about a half-inch shorter, on average, than those raised in homes that relied on other forms of heating fuel. The effect on growth was even greater for children exposed to both coal and cigarette smoke at home, according to the researchers, who report their findings in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

Whether these children will catch up to their peers on the growth chart, or if the effect is permanent, is unclear, the scientists said. However, studies of children exposed to cigarette smoke, which stunts growth, show that shorter stature continues into adolescence and possibly into adulthood, said Irva Hertz-Picciotto of the University of California, Davis, who is an author of the new study.

Roughly half the world's population burns coal, dung, wood or crop wastes for heating or cooking, according to the World Health Organization. Indoor air pollution causes up to 1.6 million deaths a year, the group has estimated.

Coal smoke is known to cause lung damage, but the new study "is significant because it indicates there's some systemic effect" on the entire body, Hertz-Picciotto said.

Her group looked at 1,133 children from two regions of the Czech Republic where coal is used widely. The researchers matched growth history of children from their medical records at birth and at 36 months with information collected from household surveys completed by their parents.

I get misty eyes when I remember the coal mining regions of the Ukraine. Most of their mines produced coke, which was useful in steel but not so much for heating, so when Ukraine's steel industry went down, a lot of jobs went poka as well.

Here's a letter to the editor that got to me so much that I clipped it and carried it around in my wallet until it fell apart:

This letter is the first of its kind that I have ever seen. It is from a coal miner, whom we will call Vladimir Ivanovich Konopkin. This letter touched me personally with its simple complaint about the ever-changing complexities of our modern life. It was from Vladimir Ivanovich, a 60 year-old man who gave most his life to the coalmines, but lost hope in his remaining years. The government, for which he dug coal for all of those years never gave him anything except arthritis, nor did it value his labors or his honesty.

"As a young man," wrote Vladimir Ivanovich. "I always repected the labor of the coal miners. I was astounded by these strong, masculine people, who at a depth of 700 meters worked the black gold of the Donbas. The labor of the coal miner was and still is not just a necessity, but dangerous as well. Back in the Soviet days he was cared for in a responsible manner, but now the situation has changed."

During his 30 years working deep in the Gagarin mine, Vladimir Ivanovich moved up from simple miner to shift leader. The mine for him was his school of life. He loved the profession, and gave it his all. Back then, with the rich hopes of a young man, Vladimir Ivanovich little suspected that these coalmines would someday become a millstone around the government's neck, and that the miners would become the lowliest of people, and their sacrifices forgotten.

Vladimir Ivanovich wrote his letter from the hospital, or more accurately, from the cardiology ward. His heart could no longer handle the strain.

"I want to live honestly," continued Vladimir Ivanovich. "But now after every shift I have to bring a small, yet extremely needed bag of coal so that I can heat my stove at home."

From his letter I understood that Vladimir Ivanovich was the only support and hope for his large family. His wife, their daughter with her child, and their teenage son, live in a cottage only 18 meters square, the kind the government provides its 'servants'. When his wife and daughter fell under the sokrashchenie (cut-backs) Vladimir Ivanovich, though already retired, returned to the coalmine in order to keep them fed. He wrote that there was not a single minute that he did not think about his family, or how they would get by without him. Back home there was neither coal, nor warmth, nor any money with which to buy it. The coalmines sometimes donate a miserly amount of coal to the families of disabled miners, but delivery is self-service, and his family has no way to carry it home.

"My wishes are my last will and testament. I wish that the New Year brings many stars in the heavens and that everyone will have enough to eat. To every resident of the town of Gorlovka, including myself, I wish warmth and comfort in their home for this coming millennium, and that no heart worries too much about tomorrow. Dai Bog (God grant)."

Vladimir Ivanovich died before he saw the new millennium, but his thoughts are perhaps reflected in the worries of many of us. The New Year should be connected with the fulfillment of happy wishes, especially in the service of others. Perhaps if some well-wisher would like to step into Vladimir Ivanovich's shoes for a moment, donations to his family may be sent via Kriminal Ehkspress, 84601 Gorlovka, Donetskoi Oblasti, ulitsa Usheva 6, in the Artyomshakhstroy building, first floor. For further information, call: 4-23-91 or 9-10-78.

Dai Bog,
Tatiana Semenova, assistant editor.
Published in Kriminal Ehkspress #52, 28.12.2000, p. 7

I typed out this article and posted on Free Republic sometime back in January of '01, and when I was in Donetsk and my conscience finally got to me, I went down to the newpaper's office just off the main square opposite the local balet.

At what passed for a secretary's desk, the lady could tell I was svoi by my glasses and height, and right away she went on about the Western Union money orders from the U.S. they'd been receiving for "Vladimir Ivanovich's family" (actually named Maxim Maximovich Kulakovsky).

FR did me proud ;-)

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