Coal-Fired Plants Raising New Health Concerns

by Pamlea Brogan of Gannett News Service and Jean Tarbett of the Huntington Herald-Dispatch (Aug. 11, 2004)

WASHINGTON – Across the country, coal is making a comeback to meet consumers’ increased demands for electricity, but a new report indicates that it may be linked to deaths from heart and lung disease.

The report marks the Huntington metropolitan area as the sixth-highest in per capita deaths related to air pollution.

…The Dirty Air Dirty Power report, a June study conducted by a group called Clear The Air, indicated that West Virginia had the highest per capita death rate from health problems related to coal-powered energy plants.

Kentucky had the second-highest, and Ohio had the fourth-highest, according to the report. Charleston was ranked has having the fourth-highest per capita death rate for a metropolitan area, and Huntington the sixth-highest.

The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 2002, coal-fired plants accounted for:

63 percent of the nation’s sulfur dioxide emissions, a major cause of acid rain.

40 percent of mercury emissions, which can cause brain damage in fetuses and neurological problems in children.

22 percent of nitrogen oxide emissions that cause smog.

The study released by Clear the Air, an environmental coalition, found that pollution from coal-fired power plants is linked to 24,000 deaths annually. That’s more than the 20,000 people killed each year in homicides and the 17,000 killed each year by drunken drivers, according to the report. The study found that 22,000 of the deaths could be avoided using the latest pollution controls.

…West Virginia claimed the highest per capita death rate, with 33.1 of every 100,000 people dying from heart or lung disease that could be linked to coal emissions.

"Once again, we’re No. 1 in a dreadful thing," (said Vivian Stockman, project coordinator with the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.) "This report is really an exclamation mark and an underline of what we’ve feared for a long time about coal fired power plants. It screams out that we really need to address the pollution problem seriously.

"When we think of coal, we think of cheap energy, but the report shows how terribly expensive it is for our health and our children’s health."

said. "Research shows that a clean environment and jobs go hand in hand. The idea that we can indeed embrace alternative energies and move the nation into a post-carbon era is not fiction. If we put our minds to it, we could make some amazing advancements and be creating jobs."