Be careful about making too much cancer attribution here, though. For one, naturally occurring background radiation levels can be (and often are) far higher tha

Be careful about making too much cancer attribution here, though. For one, naturally occurring background radiation levels can be (and often are) far higher than most people realize, and our bodies have long ago adapted to that as best they can. Two, in addition to other pollutants, burning coal also releases quite a bit of radiation, far more than you average nuclear plant or whatever. Third, for the longest time a dose of radiation received all at once vs. that same dose of radiation received over time were treated as if they were exactly the same biologically. But now that we have actual long-term results to go by, it turns out that radiation received over time is generally somewhere between 10x and 100x less dangerous biologically than if that same radiation were received all at once. Also, it matters a lot what the type of radiation received is and where you receive it. For example, radiation received by the skin (dead tissue) may be all but inconsequential, while that same radiation received in the lungs or gut or bloodstream (live tissue) may potentially be disastrous.