India | Report: Korba’s coal communities suffer twice the normal respiratory diseases in times of COVID-19

India | Report: Korba’s coal communities suffer twice the normal respiratory diseases in times of COVID-19

Korba’s coal communities suffer from twice the normal respiratory diseases in times of COVID19: SHRC Chhattisgarh

3 April 2020, New Delhi/Raipur: Chhattisgarh’s State Health Resource Centre (SHRC) releases a new study which assesses the health impact on communities in Korba living near coal-fired thermal power plants. The study affirms the hypothesis that the population living near thermal power plants has greater exposure to particulate matter resulting in higher respiratory illnesses than the general population. At a time when the country is in a lockdown …

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Philippines | Iloilo Hospital launches air quality monitoring to protect public health

Philippines | Iloilo Hospital launches air quality monitoring to protect public health

Originally published by Health Care Without Harm Southeast Asia.

Iloilo City – Environment and health advocates led by St. Paul de Chartres, Health Care Without Harm and Philippine College of Chest Physicians gathered today at St. Paul’s Hospital Iloilo to discuss impacts of air pollution on the environment.

Among the topics discussed are the sources of air pollution in Iloilo such as transport and coal plants.

“Plenty of patients are coming from the area where the coal plant is, and all of them are getting sick…”  Dr. Helen Caro-Pastolero, …

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Philippines | Healthy Energy Initiative Presents Health Case Against Proposed Coal Plant in Coastal Town

Philippines | Healthy Energy Initiative Presents Health Case Against Proposed Coal Plant in Coastal Town

The Healthy Energy Initiative Philippines team of Health Care Without Harm – Asia, together with Greenpeace Philippines, presented the health case against a proposed coal-fired power plant threatening a coastal town at a Multi-agency Forum on Impacts of Energy Sources organized by Koalisyon Isalbar Ti Pintas Ti La Union (Save the Beauty of La Union Coalition) in San Fernando, La Union, Philippines.

The town of Luna, a seaside town with white sand beaches and 45 minutes north of San Fernando, has recently been alarmed with the proposed 80-billion …

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India | Stories from Ennore, where an oil spill only piled on to older, nastier disasters

India | Stories from Ennore, where an oil spill only piled on to older, nastier disasters

Credit: Archanaa Seker and Dharmesh Shah

A doctor alarmed by a stark increase in respiratory diseases.

A grandmother fretting over her grandson’s constant hospital visits.

Fishermen with skin lesions that the local hospital can’t heal.

Teenaged boys with itchy feet from trudging through sludge in order to play cricket.

A fisherman lamenting the loss of a river that was once beautiful, that once cleansed and provided a steady livelihood.

These are some of the stories from the port town of Ennore, on the outskirts of Chennai, told through images and words …

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Philippines | HCWH-Asia condemns killing of Philippine anti-coal activist

Philippines | HCWH-Asia condemns killing of Philippine anti-coal activist

Health Care Without Harm – Asia strongly condemns the killing of staunch environmentalist and anti-coal activist Gloria Capitan in her hometown in Mariveles, Bataan in the Philippines on July 1.

“Gloria Capitan, like many other environmentalists killed before her, sacrificed her life to defend the rights of the powerless and vulnerable. Her murder demonstrates how abuses to our environment cause insurmountable damages not only to our surroundings but to people’s lives, especially the poor,” said HCWH-Asia Director Ramon San Pascual.

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India | Study reveals toxic air near coal plants in Chennai

India | Study reveals toxic air near coal plants in Chennai

Alarmingly high levels of harmful air pollutants can be found in communities in the Ennore region, a suburb of Chennai surrounded by a cluster of coal-fired power plants, according to a new report by the Chennai-based Coastal Resource Centre (CRC), a partner of the Healthy Energy Initiative.

The report, entitled “Unfit to Breathe,” notes that the fine particle pollution found in the air samples collected from residential rooftops in Ennore is comprised of a high fraction of four elements (aluminum, calcium, iron, and silicon) that occur in high levels …

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Philippines | Coal, health, and human rights: lessons from Bataan

Philippines | Coal, health, and human rights: lessons from Bataan

This post was originally published by HCWH-Asia.

For the whole month of March, Health Care Without Harm-Asia hosted two graduate students who participated in various environmental health projects and activities as part of their internship requirements. In this blog, Jonathan Lee, who is training as physician assistant and doing his Master of Public Health in Touro University in Vallejo, California, talks about his first-hand experience in two municipalities hosting coal-fired power plants in the province of Bataan in the Philippines.

It was eight in the morning of Saturday, March …

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India | Healthy Energy Speaking Tour / Toxic Tour Launched at PGI Chandigarh

Healthy Energy Initiative – India presented a Speaking Tour and Toxic Tour at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh. The program at PGI Chandigarh marked the debut of an ongoing series of speaking tours and toxics tours developed by Healthy Energy Initiative – India, organized in conjunction with leading public health educational institutes, to sensitize students, faculty, and researchers on issues surrounding energy, industrial pollution, and environmental health.

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Philippines | Recent study shows health impacts of coal felt by local communities

HCWH-Asia’s Healthy Energy Initiative with residents living near a coal-fired power plant in Masinloc, Zabales

A recent study revealed that communities in the Philippines hosting coal-fired power plants are already experiencing negative impacts on their health, environmental conditions, economic situation, and over-all wellbeing. The results of this study provide solid support for Health Care Without Harm-Asia‘s Healthy Energy Initiative’s public health-driven push for the phasing out of coal and other fossil fuel-based energy sources and for shifting to healthier, cleaner, and more climate-friendly renewable …

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Philippines | Communities Hosting Coal Plants Learn About Coal’s Health Effects, Advocate For “Healthy Energy”

Community leaders from the municipalities of Mariveles and Limay in Bataan province called for putting an end to coal use to protect human health and the environment.

As part of its latest campaign Healthy Energy Initiative, Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Asia, in partnership with Coal Free Bataan Movement (CFBM) and Defend Zambales (DZ), recently conducted a series of seminar-workshops on coal and health, which aimed to raise community awareness and build consensus around the impacts of coal on human health. More than a hundred …

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