Coal Mining, Health, and Morbidity: A Brief Overview of the Empirical Scholarly Literature from a Regional Science Perspective

Numerous peer-reviewed studies have documented significantly poorer health conditions across multiple health indicators among people residing in coal-mining areas versus those living in non coal-mining areas. This brief literature review provides an overview and limited critique of this literature for those whose environmental concerns encompass the world of coal mining and offers recommendations for future research on human health and negative coal mining externalities.