That darn coal lobby!

I read with interest the letter from Robert M. Duncan (Affordable, Reliable Coal, Dec. 2, 2015).

Is this the same Robert M. “Mike” Duncan who chaired the Republican National Committee at the end of the 2nd George W. Bush administration? The same “Mike” Duncan who as late as 1996 was still defending the tobacco industry?

His position is odd, because on this same day, I read the abstract of a study released the same day by George D. Thurston et al., New York University School of Medicine, Departments of Environmental Medicine and Population Health,“Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD) Mortality and Long-Term Exposure to Source-Related Components of U.S. Fine Particle Air Pollution”.

Dr. Thurston and his colleagues studied risk factor data “for 445,860 adults in 100 U.S. metropolitan areas followed from 1982 to 2004 for vital status and cause of death”. They concluded “Long-term PM2.5 exposures from fossil fuel combustion, especially coal burning, but also from diesel traffic, were associated with increases in IHD mortality in this nationwide population.” As the Washington Post put it on the same day,”Coal is king among pollution that causes heart disease, study says”.

To Mr. “Mike” Duncan, who seems to have a connection with the aptly named American Crossroads, I say, “Thank you for smoking.”