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We’re Having A…Bad Air Day California, which has the nation’s largest population and some of its worst air quality, has very few coal or oil-fired power plants. Abt Associates estimates that only 259 deaths are attributable to power plant pollution in California and the state ranked almost last in per capita impact (1.4 deaths per 100,000 adults). Kentucky, the state with the highest reliance on coal for production of electricity ranked first in related per capita mortality at more than 44 deaths per 100,000 adults, over 30 times higher than California’s per capita mortality rate. (No wonder Kentucky takes the prize for harassing us.) However, much smaller metropolitan areas in and around “coal country” suffer the greatest per capita impacts, such as Chattanooga, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Terre Haute, Indiana; Wheeling, West Virginia; and Owensboro, Kentucky. Their death rates are much higher, for example, than that of New York City. Compare Chattanooga at 49.3 deaths per 100,000 adults with New York at 19.3 per 100,000. Combustion sources such as power plants, diesel trucks and buses, car, etc. They are sometimes referred to as PM 2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in diameter – less than one-hundredth of the width of human hair). Fine particles are either emitted directly from these combustion sources or are formed in the atmosphere through complex oxidation reactions involving gases, such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) or nitrogen oxides (NOX). Among particles, fine particles are of gravest concern because they are so tiny that they can be inhaled deeply, thus evading the human lungs’ natural defenses. 60,000 people die each year because of exposure to fine particles. And some researchers believe that this figure may even underestimate the total number of deaths due to fine particles in the U.S. Now, for the first time, this report reveals the power industry’s staggering share of the toll of death and disease from fine particles in our air. Using peer-reviewed, state-of-the-art research methodology, Abt Associates finds over 30,000 deaths each year are attributable to fine particle pollution form U.S. power plants. Drunk driving causes nearly 16,000 deaths per year. There are over 17,000 homicides in the U.S. per year. Pollution claims over 60,000 in comparison. Among air pollution sources, the deaths attributable to power plants are rivaled only by those due to the fine particle pollution from the combined total of all the diesel trucks, buses, locomotives, and construction equipment in the U.S. Power plant particle pollution causes more than 603,000 asthma attacks per year. Air pollution from eight utilities targeted in federal lawsuits during the Clinton administration caused an estimated 5,900 deaths a year. Airborne pollution from the coal-fired plants also was blamed for about 140,000 asthma attacks and 14,000 cases of acute bronchitis annually, according to a report from a group headed by Eric Schaeffer. The study also projects that power plant emissions from these eight utilities largely concentrated in the Midwest and South, will cause 4,300 annual cases of chronic bronchitis, 160,000 cases of upper respiratory symptoms and 140,000 asthma attacks. Americans will miss an estimated 1.2 million days of work a year because of related health problems, it said. Worldwide Statistics…Eight thousand people a day die from air pollution. There are 3 million annual deaths, worldwide. Carbon Monoxide Chokes Your Cells – Automobile emissions are the main source of carbon monoxide (CO) in the air. More than 9.7 million people live in areas that regularly exceeded Federal limits in 1997. CO displace the oxygen in your red blood cells. Consequently, less oxygen is carried to the cells in your body; the heart and lungs are the most adversely affected. Some 3 million people who suffer congestive heart failure (a life-threatening chronic condition in which the heart can not pump out all the blood that enters the chambers) may be extremely vulnerable to the effects of CO. studies show that even Federally permissible levels of CO could intensify symptoms enough to require hospitalization, and that high exposure to the pollutant for even a short period can lower the amount of exertion it takes for people with coronary artery disease to experience chest pain (angina). People living in areas with the highest concentration of particulates have a 15% to 17% increased risk of death compare with those who live in the least polluted areas. Interestingly, their findings were consistent for smokers and non-smokers alike. What are we doing to stop tobacco from claiming lives? There are some statistics from the CDC that cigarettes do kill more than pollution at the rate of somewhere around 400,000 per year, but people have been granted the right to know that. We are doing nothing to warn the public about living in the region of a coal fired power plant where those statistics come much closer together. If, in an over all population of 293,500,000 people, there are 400,000 deaths, then that is an average of 136 deaths per 100,000 population. In some locations the pollution death rate is as high as 50 people per 100,000. That is 36% as many people in that region who will die from pollution as the total number of deaths in the same area due to cigarette smoke. The alternative is to just quit smoking in the case of cigarette smoke, but in the case of pollution the only current option is to move somewhere that has a better statistic, but there is no warning that living in that state is so hazardous to your health. There is an alternative to pollution, but the people are totally being denied the right to even know that it exists! The cigarette companies probably wish they were entitled to the same protection, but they are not quite as influential as those who dominate the fossil fuels industry. There is no safe way to smoke, but there is a safe way to make electricity. Don’t you agree that the people of this country should have a right to know about it? |
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