Residents say coal dust is the source of some health problems

A 19th-century energy source, according to some Newport News locals, has harmed their neighborhoods for far too long.

Uneita Scott claims that when she was eight years old, she first remembered coal dust.

“My older sister and I would play and we would see coal on the windowsills,” Scott recalled. “It was nothing for us to see coal on the ground and our mother would fuss because when we would come in our feet would be dirty from the coal.”

Scott claimed at the time that she didn’t give it much thought until her older sister Erica was ill.

“They had to amputate her lung in order for her to live a healthy life because her diagnosis was coal miner’s lung. Doctors told me straight out that at 14 years old, she had the lung capacity of a 30-year-old coal mine worker,” Scott recalled.

As soon as Yugonda Sample-Jones moved to the city, her son started having asthma attacks.

“My son and I started getting information about what asthma is and where it comes from and we realized it was an effect of the coal dust,” Jones stated.

The Peninsula Health District conducted a coal-related research in Newport News in 2005.

Adrian Wood works at the Repair Lab at the University of Virginia. The school has a section dedicated to studying environmental and racial injustice.

“Asthma rates downtown were double that of Newport News as a whole and also double that the state of Virginia,” stated Wood. “We can’t attribute that directly to coal dust but we do know that asthma rates are higher they were higher then and since then coal export has increased,”

There are two significant coal export terminals in Hampton Roads, according to Wood.

“And collectively, they are the United States’ largest exporter of coal. A percent of the coal produced in America was exported in 2019. Since then, it has increased, particularly now that coal is flowing from Baltimore due to the collapse of the Key Bridge; we are exporting more than ever,” Wood stated.

Coal dust contamination was a topic of discussion on Saturday for Empower All, a Newport News-based nonprofit organization that concentrates on social justice and environmental issues.

Jones, the organization’s CEO, believes that cleaner air is necessary. It will need community backing, she said.

“The most important piece is educating the community, whether we are sending letters showing up at city council and showing our government that we are not letting go we want our clean air,” Jones stated.