Davin News Server

pothead wrote:

>I don't see oil wells from my window or when boating.
>If energy companies want to implement wind turbines, install them
>in the middle of nowhere.

you don't see coal mines either but the consequences of them belching 
pollutants are responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans, 
mostly in destitute red state shitholes. 


I know you'll find Scientific American an untrustworthy source because 
of the conspiracy of all the evil scientists and the fact that it's not 
radical right wing lies by Breitbart, WMD or England's Daily Mirror 
tabloid.  Rightists always stand with Trump because they're all 
shitheads and so is he.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coal-power-kills-a-
staggering-number-of-americans/

"Coal Power Kills a Staggering Number of Americans

An estimated 460,000 deaths in the U. S. were attributable to coal-fired 
power plant pollution between 1999 and 2020, new research finds

By Ariel Wittenberg & E&E News
Smoke stacks with black smoke rising behind trees.

A coal-fired power plant in Michigan.

Jim West/Alamy Stock Photo

CLIMATEWIRE | Particulate pollution from coal plants is likely far more 
deadly than EPA regulations recognize, according to a study published in 
Science over the Thanksgiving holiday.

Exposure to fine particulate air pollutants from coal-fired power plants 
has an associated risk of mortality that is more than double that of 
PM2.5 from all other sources, according to the study from researchers at 
Harvard University, George Mason University and University of Texas, 
Austin.

PM 2.5 from coal has been treated as if its just another air pollutant, 
but its much more harmful than we thought, and its mortality burden has 
been seriously underestimated, said lead author Lucas Henneman, an 
assistant professor in George Masons department of civil, environmental 
and infrastructure engineering.

To calculate the pollutions mortality rate, the authors looked at 
emission data from 480 American coal plants between 1999 and 2020 and 
used computer models to track where the wind blew pollution. They then 
examined Medicare records for some 650 million Americans living within 
the polluted areas.

They found a "staggering" number of deaths  460,000  between 1999 and 
2020 that were attributable to coal-fired power plant pollution. Ten of 
the power plants contributed to at least 5,000 deaths apiece.

Whats more, deaths dramatically decreased around some of the power 
plants after they installed pollution control technology, called 
scrubbers. For example, before emissions scrubbers were installed at the 
Keystone power plant in Pennsylvania, deaths attributable to coal 
pollution in the immediate area averaged more than 600 per year. Once 
scrubbers were installed, they dropped below 100.

There are a substantial number of deaths prevented the year after one of 
the scrubbers is installed because the air is substantially cleaner, 
said co-author Francesca Dominici, a professor of biostatistics and 
population and data science at Harvard's T. H. Chan School of Public 
Health.

The new study is part of a growing body of evidence that shows adverse 
health effects of PM2.5 can vary depending on the source of pollution  a 
finding that air pollution regulations do not necessarily reflect.

PM 2.5 is a matter of convenience, it reflects the size of a particle, 
Henneman said. But particles of the same size can contain any different 
number of chemicals, depending on the source.
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People of Color Breathe More Than Their Share of Polluted Air

Andrea Thompson

George Thurston, a professor in the departments of medicine and 
population health at the New York University School of Medicine, has 
been studying the toxicity of PM2.5 from coal plants specifically for 
decades. He was not involved in the new Science study but said its 
findings are in line with his own research.

Most recently, Thurston was the lead author of a study published this 
summer in Environmental Research: Health looking at the closure of a 
Pittsburgh coal processing plant. When the Shenango Coke Works facility 
closed in January 2016, average daily levels of sulfur dioxide fell by 
90 percent at government air monitoring stations near the plant, and by 
50 percent at monitoring stations more than 6 miles away. That 
corresponded to health gains. Immediately after the shutdown, average 
weekly visits to local emergency departments for heart-related problems 
decreased by 42 percent.

It turns out that particles from fossil fuel combustion have a lot of 
really toxic constituents in them, so they are really above average in 
terms of health effects per mass, Thurston said.

In particular, PM2.5 from coal combustion can contain transition metals, 
which can cause oxidated stress in the body, which leads to inflammation 
that can exacerbate conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular 
conditions. Coal PM2.5 also contains sulfur dioxide, which makes the 
metals easier for the body to absorb.

EPA regulations for PM2.5 dont reflect that different sources of 
emissions can have varying effects on people. But they still have 
targeted coal fired power plants because such combustion, along with 
motor vehicle traffic, is one of the largest sources of PM2.5, 
generally.

Both Henneman and Thurston said they hope the agency would consider 
their research in future regulations. In particular, they say, their 
work would help EPA when it calculates the benefits of requiring 
pollution controls.

As air pollution in the U. S. gets cleaner and cleaner, we should be 
targeting the remaining sources that are the most impactful to health, 
Henneman said.

Reprinted from E&E News with permission from POLITICO, LLC. Copyright 
2023. E&E News provides essential news for energy and environment 
professionals."