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Pollution from coal-fired power plants causes far more deaths than previously thought

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04 Dec, 2023

This post was originally published on Sustainability Times

Source: Sustainability Times

Photo: Pexels/Tanhauser Vázquez R.

Air pollution particles from coal-fired power plants are more harmful to human health than many experts realized, and it’s more than twice as likely to contribute to premature deaths as air pollution particles from other sources, new research demonstrates.

In the study, published in the journal Science, colleagues and I mapped how U.S. coal power plant emissions traveled through the atmosphere, then linked each power plant’s emissions with death records of Americans over 65 years old on Medicare.

Our results suggest that air pollutants released from coal power plants were associated with nearly half a million premature deaths of elderly Americans from 1999 to 2020.

It’s a staggering number, but the study also has good news: Annual deaths associated with U.S. coal power plants have fallen sharply since the mid-2000s as federal regulations compelled operators to install emissions scrubbers and many utilities shut down coal plants entirely.

In 1999, 55,000 deaths were attributable to coal air pollution in the U.S., according to our findings. By 2020, that number had fallen to 1,600.

In the U.S., coal is being displaced by natural gas and renewable energy for generating electricity. Globally, however, coal use is projected to increase in coming years. That makes our results all the more urgent for global decision-makers to understand as they develop future policies.

Coal air pollution: What makes it so bad?

A landmark study in the 1990s, known as the Harvard Six Cities Study, linked tiny airborne particles called PM2.5 to increased risk of early death. Other studies have since linked PM2.5 to lung and heart disease, cancerdementia and other diseases.

Following that research, the Environmental Protection Agency began regulating PM2.5 concentrations in 1997 and has lowered the acceptable limit over time.

(photo: Pixabay)

PM2.5 – particles small enough to be inhaled deep into our lungs – comes from several different sources, including gasoline combustion in vehicles and smoke from wood fires and power plants. It is made up of many different chemicals.

Coal is also a mix of many chemicals – carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, even metals. When coal is burned, all of these chemicals are emitted to the atmosphere either as gases or particles. Once there, they are transported by the wind and interact with other chemicals already in the atmosphere.

As a result, anyone downwind of a coal plant may be breathing a complex cocktail of chemicals, each with its own potential effects on human health.

Tracking coal PM2.5

To understand the risks coal emissions pose to human health, we tracked how sulfur dioxide emissions from each of the 480 largest U.S. coal power plants operating at any point since 1999 traveled with the wind and turned into tiny particles – coal PM2.5. We used sulfur dioxide because of its known health effects and drastic decreases in emissions over the study period.

We then used a statistical model to link coal PM2.5 exposure to Medicare records of nearly 70 million people from 1999 to 2020. This model allowed us to calculate the number of deaths associated with coal PM2.5.

In our statistical model, we controlled for other pollution sources and accounted for many other known risk factors, like smoking status, local meteorology and income level. We tested multiple statistical approaches that all yielded consistent results.

We compared the results of our statistical model with previous results testing the health impacts of PM2.5 from other sources and found that PM2.5 from coal is twice as harmful as PM2.5 from all other sources.

The number of deaths associated with individual power plants depended on multiple factors – how much the plant emits, which way the wind blows and how many people breathe in the pollution. Unfortunately, U.S. utilities located many of their plants upwind of major population centers on the East Coast. This siting amplified these plants’ impacts.

In an interactive online tool, users can look up our estimates of annual deaths associated with each U.S. power plant and also see how those numbers have fallen over time at most U.S. coal plants.

A US success story and the global future of coal

Engineers have been designing effective scrubbers and other pollution-control devices that can reduce pollution from coal-fired power plants for several years. And the EPA has rules specifically to encourage utilities that used coal to install them, and most facilities that did not install scrubbers have shut down.

The results have been dramatic: Sulfur dioxide emissions decreased about 90% in facilities that reported installing scrubbers. Nationwide, sulfur dioxide emissions decreased 95% since 1999. According to our tally, deaths attributable to each facility that installed a scrubber or shut down decreased drastically.

As advances in fracking techniques reduced the cost of natural gas, and regulations made running coal plants more expensive, utilities began replacing coal with natural gas plants and renewable energy. The shift to natural gas – a cleaner-burning fossil fuel than coal but still a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change – led to even further air pollution reductions.

Today, coal contributes about 27% of electricity in the U.S., down from 56% in 1999.

Globally, however, the outlook for coal is mixed. While the U.S. and other nations are headed toward a future with substantially less coal, the International Energy Agency expects global coal use to increase through at least 2025.

Our study and others like it make clear that increases in coal use will harm human health and the climate. Making full use of emissions controls and a turn toward renewables are surefire ways to reduce coal’s negative impacts.

This article was written by Lucas Henneman, an assistant professor of engineering at George Mason University. It is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post Pollution from coal-fired power plants causes far more deaths than previously thought appeared first on Sustainability Times.

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Urban 'placemaking' focus for $85m recreation centre

Urban 'placemaking' focus for $85m recreation centre

Sydney developer Billbergia Group has announced the Rhodes Recreation Centre — an $85 million, 9200 m2 multi-purpose community hub in Sydney’s Inner West.

Located at 6 Gauthorpe St and designed by architectural firm SJB, the recreation centre is in a three-level podium building beneath two high-rise residential towers — the 48-level Peake and 43-level Oasis. Together, they form stage two of the developer’s Rhodes Central Masterplan — a $3 billion, three-stage town centre project.

The Rhodes Recreation Centre was delivered under a $97 million Voluntary Planning Agreement (VPA) between the developer and City of Canada Bay Council. It will be handed over to council next month and is set to open later this year. Once complete, the masterplan will have delivered 25,000 m2 of dedicated public amenity, including retail, community facilities and open space.

With the NSW Government’s housing reforms set to address the housing shortage, the recreation centre will reflect the importance of ‘placemaking’ — a collaborative approach to designing and managing public spaces that enhances community wellbeing and fosters connections between people and their environment — in planning new urban communities.

It also presents a pathway for public and private sectors to collaborate and create social infrastructure while increasing housing supply in fast-growing suburbs.

The recreation centre is set to add vibrancy and pedestrian activity to the local streetscape, providing a diverse range of facilities that enhance the livability of the evolving suburb. These community amenities include two full-sized indoor sports courts, a gymnastics centre, a 70-place childcare centre, a community lounge, allied health services, and bookable spaces for local groups and events. It also provides a gym with cardio equipment, weights, group fitness rooms, a creche and an outdoor terrace, alongside a range of sustainability features.

Facilities at the Rhodes Recreation Centre. Images supplied.

“Rhodes Recreation Centre is the community heart of our high-density TOD development, bringing to life Billbergia’s vision for a future-focused, livable urban environment that prioritises amenity, not just density,” said Saul Moran, Development Director – Planning and Design at Billbergia.

The amenities within the two residential towers include a swimming pool, spa, sauna, children’s play area, library and theatre rooms. Pedestrian connections and through-site links provide access to Rhodes railway station and the Homebush Bay waterfront.

“The Rhodes Recreation Centre stands as a benchmark in successful public–private collaboration. Through a VPA with Canada Bay Council, we’ve created a pathway to unlock additional housing supply while delivering significant, lasting community infrastructure. It’s a clear demonstration of how thoughtful public and private partnerships can shape vibrant, livable neighbourhoods,” Moran said.

Located adjacent to Rhodes railway station, stage one of Billbergia’s Rhodes Central Masterplan was completed in 2021 and included the 13,000 m2 Rhodes Central Shopping Centre, with convenience retail, a Woolworths supermarket, medical facilities and the Bamboo Lane dining precinct.

Other previous projects include the 1.2 ha Phoenix Park in Rhodes, the $63 million Bennelong Bridge, the popular Baylink Shuttle service, the 3500 m2 Wentworth Point Community Centre and Library, and the Wentworth Point Pop-Up Town Square.

Billbergia’s ongoing focus on placemaking and social infrastructure also includes the $8.4 million delivery of a library at its mixed-tenure development, Arncliffe Central, in Sydney’s south. There is the potential for 75% of Arncliffe Central’s dwellings to be dedicated to social, affordable and essential worker rental housing, along with 3400 m2 allocated to childcare, convenience retail and cafes, and a 4000 m2 park with play space for both residents and the broader community.

Top image caption: The Rhodes Recreation Centre location with two planned residential towers, Peake and Oasis. Image supplied.

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