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Re:Smoke has caused temperature forecasts to go crazy by Verdex on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @10:12AM (#24481363)
Coal can have radioactive materials inside of it. There's radioactive carbon (c14) and it looks like also a bunch of more concerning materials.

[] - https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-ash-is-more-....

Re:Smoke has caused temperature forecasts to go crazy by cyphar on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @10:28AM (#24481550)
Regarding carbon-14, there is so little of it that it makes no sense to even think about it (about 1 in 10^12 atoms). In addition, all biological matter (including you and the food you eat) has carbon-14 present in it -- that's the basic principle behind carbon dating. In fact, ash from wood burning would probably have more carbon-14 if anything.

But yes, the article you linked talks about trace amounts of uranium and other materials that actually could be harmful.

Re:Smoke has caused temperature forecasts to go crazy by spqr0a1 on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @10:36AM (#24481643)
The half life of C-14 is much shorter than geologic formation time for coal. Coal's radioactivity is due to primordial nuclides and their decay chains.
Re:Smoke has caused temperature forecasts to go crazy by shard on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @06:35PM (#24487520)
How does the radioactivity from coal compare with the radioactivity from bananas?