Death, Disease, and Dirty Power. Mortality and health damage due to air pollution from power plants
- Clean Air Task Force, 77 Summer Street, Boston, MA 02110 (US)
The Clean Air Task Force, on behalf of the Clear the Air campaign, commissioned Abt Associates to quantify the health impacts of fine particle air pollution, commonly known as soot, from power plants, as well as the expected benefits (avoidable deaths, hospitalizations, etc.) of policies that would reduce fine particle pollution from power plants. The health effects analyzed include death, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, asthma attacks, and a variety of lesser respiratory symptoms. This report summarizes the findings of the Abt Associates study, reviews the contribution of power plants to fine particle pollution, and discusses policies that will reduce power plant fine particle pollution and thus save thousands of lives. Key findings include: Fine particle pollution from US power plants cuts short the lives of over 30,000 people each year. In more polluted areas, fine particle pollution can shave several years off its victims' lives. Hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer from asthma attacks, cardiac problems and upper and lower respiratory problems associated with fine particles from power plants. The elderly, children, and those with respiratory disease are most severely impacted by fine particle pollution from power plants. Metropolitan areas with large populations near coal-fired power plants feel their impacts most acutely - their attributable death rates are much higher than in areas with few or no coal-fired power plants. Power plants outstrip all other polluters as the largest source of sulfates - the major component of fine particle pollution - in the US Approximately two-thirds (over 18,000) of the deaths due to fine particle pollution from power plants could be avoided by implementing policies that cut power plant sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide pollution 75 percent below 1997 emission levels. Fine particle pollution is responsible for increased risk of death and shortened life spans. Abt Associates' findings are based on a body of well-accepted scientific work on the health effects of fine particle pollution. The report contains an extensive review of the scientific studies used by Abt Associates linking fine particle pollution to death and other health damages. The methodology of how the Abt Associates analysis was performed is also discussed.
- Research Organization:
- Abt Associates Inc.,Bethesda, MD (US)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- Clean Air Task Force (US)
- OSTI ID:
- 778926
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 1 Oct 2000
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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