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Environmental geochemistry and health of fluorine in Chinese coals

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Environmental Geology

Abstract

Fluorine is one of the potential hazardous trace elements in coal. Fluorine may be released into atmosphere mostly during coal combustion process. When the coal is burning indoors without any controlling methods (chimney), the fluorine will pollute the room and is absorbed by food fired (dried) over stoves. Now many people have suffered from fluorosis due to coal burning indoors in Southwest China. In this paper, the concentration, distribution, mode of occurrences and impact factors of fluorine in Chinese coals are analyzed. The environmental impacts and typical features of fluorosis are studied. It is concluded that the value of fluorine in Chinese coals ranges from 20 to 300 mg/kg, and with average value of 122 mg/kg from 5,603 coal samples. It is higher than the average value of the world coals (80 mg/kg). In provincial coalfields of the SW China, the content of F is highest and many people have been affected due to coal combustion indoors.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (40273035) and Anhui Natural Science Excellent Youth Foundation (04045064). We thank the viewers and editors for giving us some constructive comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and the Environments, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, People’s Republic of China

    Guijian Liu, Liugen Zheng, Cuicui Qi & Ying Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an, 710075, Shaanxi, People’s Republic of China

    Guijian Liu

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  1. Guijian Liu
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  2. Liugen Zheng
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Correspondence to Guijian Liu.

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Liu, G., Zheng, L., Qi, C. et al. Environmental geochemistry and health of fluorine in Chinese coals. Environ Geol 52, 1307–1313 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0569-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-006-0569-6

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