Clean Air Ambassador:

Barbara Warren, MD, MPH

Tucson, Arizona

Coal ash sits in a heap in front of the electric power generating station in our community. Though it contains many toxic heavy metals, it is totally unregulated. I toured the electric power generating station and was horrified by the employees' denial of any harmful effects of burning coal.

I now know that coal ash contains mercury, lead, arsenic, and many other very toxic heavy metals. But most of us are not even informed about this risk and the presence of these toxic materials.

My children and grandchildren are exposed to these very toxic heavy metals—all so we can boil water to turn a turbine. This can be done much more safely! We need clean renewable energies and in the meantime, strict regulations on coal burning power plant emissions.

President Obama and our members of Congress have an obligation to empower the EPA to help us regulate the toxic emissions from coal burning power plants and from exposures to their toxic waste products, as well as the emissions of carbon pollution that threaten our very existence on this planet from global warming.

Our children and their children will inherit a nightmare if we do not! Is this our wish for them?