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On the veranda of a small house, Omer coughs as his wife serves up sweet tea and biscuits. The golden glow of late-afternoon sun peaks through nearby foliage and scatters across the floor – an idyllic scene, perhaps, but for a swell of black smoke pooling in the sky over us.
All day – and some say at night, too – emissions chug out in huge columns from alternating chimneys at the nearby Afşin-Elbistan coal plant. It leaves the air all around the surrounding plateau, in Turkey’s southern Kahramanmaraş region, feeling dry and heavy in the mouth and lungs.
Now in his late fifties, Omer has worked at the vast plant for years, as well as living a stone's throw from it. His brothers also worked there, but in recent years, three have died – two from lung cancer and one of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), a progressive lung condition that can be caused or worsened by long-term exposure to coal fumes.
“I believe working at this plant killed them,” says Omer, pointing his finger towards it in indignation. “And I’m not going to see 65, I know that.”
