A comparison
Bag of charcoal and Steel
Two figures compared the only honest way: calculated together, so that what they have in common moves them together, and read as how many times larger one is than the other, with a range.
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Side by side, per kilogram
Scenario Conservative, using FIGARO 2023. Each figure is the middle result of 2,000 runs of the calculation, with the range that holds nine in ten of them beside it, and the grade that range earns.
Bag of charcoal
2.1 × 10⁻¹⁰ per kilogram(0.82–5.0 × 10⁻¹⁰)LOWS-CONS · run 2151 · methodology v0.1 · data dv-20261007-44r
One item is one 3 kg bag of lump wood charcoal, without the bag.
Steel
4.5 × 10⁻¹⁰ per kilogram(2.6–7.2 × 10⁻¹⁰)LOWS-CONS · run 2151 · methodology v0.1 · data dv-20261007-44r
One item is one kilogram of crude steel, world route mix.
Which is larger
The model cannot tell whether Bag of charcoal carries more harm than Steel per kilogram: the range includes both possibilities.
Bag of charcoal against Steel, per kilogram: ×0.48 as much, and very probably (nine times in ten) between ×0.17–×1.2.
In 74% of the runs calculated together, Bag of charcoal comes out above Steel.
Calculated together: the same records of harm, the same split of each industry and the same world production in every run, and each product’s own list of materials. Seeing whether two separate ranges overlap would prove nothing either way.
The reason they differ
Deaths per kilogram of each product, by what carries them, with the largest difference first.
By raw material
| Material | Bag of charcoal | Steel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coal and lignite | 0 | 4.3 × 10⁻¹⁰ | −4.3 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Wood charcoal | 2.1 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 0 | +2.1 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Iron ore | 0 | 1.4 × 10⁻¹¹ | −1.4 × 10⁻¹¹ |
By country where the harm was counted
| Country | Bag of charcoal | Steel | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ukraine | 0 | 4.2 × 10⁻¹⁰ | −4.2 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Congo, Dem. Rep. | 1.8 × 10⁻¹⁰ | 0 | +1.8 × 10⁻¹⁰ |
| Thailand | 1.7 × 10⁻¹¹ | 3.9 × 10⁻¹⁴ | +1.7 × 10⁻¹¹ |
| Turkiye | 0 | 7.8 × 10⁻¹² | −7.8 × 10⁻¹² |
| Mexico | 0 | 7.5 × 10⁻¹² | −7.5 × 10⁻¹² |
| United States | 8.3 × 10⁻¹² | 9.2 × 10⁻¹³ | +7.4 × 10⁻¹² |
| Argentina | 1.8 × 10⁻¹² | 2.3 × 10⁻¹⁷ | +1.8 × 10⁻¹² |
| Russian Federation | 4.9 × 10⁻¹³ | 2.0 × 10⁻¹² | −1.5 × 10⁻¹² |
Middle estimates. The range above belongs to the totals; these rows show where the middle difference comes from.
By the money method
- Bag of charcoal — 6.1 × 10⁻⁷ per €1,000 spent in its industry(4.0–9.4 × 10⁻⁷)MEDIUMS-CONS · run 2151 · methodology v0.1 · data dv-20261007-44r
- Steel — 2.9 × 10⁻⁶ per €1,000 spent in its industry(1.9–4.4 × 10⁻⁶)MEDIUMS-CONS · run 2151 · methodology v0.1 · data dv-20261007-44r
Shown, not ranked. Measured per euro, most industries are too close to tell apart, and two products from the same industry always get the same figure per euro.
What this figure is not
Production phase only. Harm from using the product — driving the car, charging the phone — is not in this figure.
HumanToll 2026, run 2151, methodology v0.1. https://quiescence.eu/humantoll/compare/charcoal-bag/steel/