Clean Air News

Power Plant Pollution Shortens More Than 30,000 Lives Each Year Nationwide

As the new home of NJPIRG's environmental work, Environment New Jersey can be contacted regarding this news release.

Pollution from electric power plants kills 1,100 people in New Jersey, and 30,000 Americans across the country every year, according to a new report released today by NJPIRG and Clear the Air, the National Campaign Against Dirty Power. Public health and environmental advocates highlighted the report finding that nearly two-thirds of those deaths are preventable through steep pollution cuts as proposed by several bills in Congress.

"Pollution from dirty power plants is a serious threat to public health," said John Paul Guinan, Clean Air Advocate for NJPIRG. "More people die as a result of the pollution from these plants than from drunk driving or homicides every year."

The report, Death, Disease and Dirty Power Plants: Mortality and other Health Impacts from Power Plant Air Pollution is based on research conducted by Abt Associates, a risk analysis firm frequently used by the Environmental Protection Agency. The research was developed using methodology approved by the EPA and peer-reviewed by Professor John Spengler of the Harvard School of Public Health.

Among the report's findings:

· Fine particle pollution from dirty power plants cuts short the lives of 1,100 people in New Jersey, and 30,000 Americans nationwide each year.

· A 75% cut in power plant soot would prevent 718 of these New Jersey deaths, and would prevent 18,000 nationwide each year.

· Each year the power plant pollution also causes an estimated 21,900 asthma attacks in New Jersey and 603,000 asthma attacks nationally.

"Cleaning up power plants would save almost twice as many lives each year as seat belts do," continued Guinan. "The staggering numbers of death and disease caused by power plant pollution is a cry for Federal action."

Currently, several bipartisan bills in Congress would require cuts as high as 75 percent in power plant emissions of nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide from old dirty coal-fired power plants located primarily in the midwest. Every member of the New Jersey Congressional delegation, with the exception of Representatives LoBiondo and Frelinghuysen, has supported these bills.

The report is available on the web at www.cleartheair.org.