The wide ranging health dangers of coal dust include exposure to toxic heavy metals like mercury and increased rates of asthma, especially in children. Coal dust and diesel exhaust from coal trains and cargo ships can cause serious long-term health problems like lung and heart disease and would hurt our health and pollute our clean air and water. Exporting coal to Asian nations encourages them to burn more dirty coal and prolongs the world’s transition to cleaner alternatives. The result would be more global warming pollution, resulting in more forest fires, more flooding and lost agriculture, forestry and fishery revenues. More coal burning in Asia would mean more toxic pollution travelling across the Pacific to contaminate rivers, lakes and fish.