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Apart from the negative environmental impact of burning coal, the sheer volume of coal needed to produce electricity is an environmental factor in itself. Coal mines and the related piles of coal and waste cover large areas. Even the transportation of coal is an environmental issue because of its huge volume.
Coal mining is inherently dangerous. Hundreds of Canadians have been killed in coal-mine accidents, and thousands of others have died early and painful deaths because of the unhealthy conditions within coal mines.
Conditions have improved dramatically in Canadian coal mines in the past few decades, but the same cannot be said for some other countries, notably China and some parts of eastern Europe. Around the world thousands of coal miners die every year.