When the winter season begins, and temperatures begin to drop and people begin to camp in the north and south of the country, they resort to using various heating methods, including igniting coal and placing it inside homes.
However, the danger of coal is greater, especially since it has led to more than one death by suffocation recently. Despite this the danger of adulterated coal never ceases which is known to emit deadly poisonous gases.
Al-Rai recently toured the coal market in the Shuwaikh Industrial Area, and at the roundabout in particular, which has been known since the seventies as the “Coal Roundabout”, because there were many shops selling coal but only two have stood the test of time.
Hussein Ghulam, one of the owners of the shop, warned against buying coal from other than the approved source, “because there is fraud and great confusion in this product, and its danger is more through the gases that come out of it during its ignition,” pointing out that “some street sellers sell adulterated coal and take advantage that the items sold are not refundable, unlike those who buy from an approved and licensed store.
He pointed out that “cheating takes place by mixing bad coal with good, such as mixing artificial coal with natural coal.”
Charcoal prices vary according to weight and source, as 7 kilograms of African coal is sold for 3.5 dinars, Vietnamese coal is sold for 4 dinars (10 kilograms), American coal at 4.5 dinars (10 kilos bag). The Emirati, known as the Chinese, because it is synthetic and its grain is round, is sold for 3.5 dinars (10 kilograms).
The best types of coal were imported from Somalia, until a ban was imposed due to the political and security situation and the resolutions issued by the United Nations.
