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The Cleveland Plain Dealer
www.cleveland.com
1,920 Ohio deaths linked to utility air
Tuesday, October 17, 2000
By SABRINA EATON
Air pollution from electric power plants kills more
than 30,000 Americans each year, nearly double the number
who die from drunken driving accidents or homicides, according
to a study to be released today by a coalition of environmental
groups.
The study rates Ohio second in the nation in yearly
deaths from respiratory problems attributed to coal-burning
power plants, with 1,920. Top-ranked Pennsylvania had 2,250.
Cleveland ranked 11th among metropolitan areas in
the number of deaths, with 442.
The report performed by a consultant who works regularly
for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated that
more than 18,000 deaths around the country could be prevented
each year if power plants lower nitrogen oxide and sulfur
dioxide output by 75 percent, as pending federal legislation
proposes.
"This is not just an issue of pollution blowing
into the East coast. Power plant pollution is having a devastating
effect on public health right here in Ohio and the Cleveland
area," said Margaux Shields, of Ohio Public Interest
Research Group, one of the groups that commissioned the
report entitled "Death, Disease & Dirty Power."
Electricity producers criticized the new study for
relying on prior reports they believe overstate the dangers
of plant emissions. Pat Hemlepp of Columbus-based American
Electric Power said a recent study by the Electric Power
Research Institute (EPRI) found airborne sulfur compounds
didn’t harm health, although it linked other forms of air
pollution with cardiovascular disease.
A spokesman for Edison Electric Institute, a power
company trade group, said the nation’s electric plants take
ample environmental precautions, and reduced their annual
sooty particle emissions, from 1.8 million tons in 1970
to 0.3 million tons in 1997. Spokesman Dan Reidinger said
there’s no proof that power plants, rather than cars, caused
the health problems cited in the study.
"There is no guarantee that further ratcheting
down power plant emissions is going to produce the kind
of health benefits alleged in this report because you can’t
say the particles they are talking about came from power
plants," Reidinger said. "We don’t want to dismiss
this as an area of scientific study or as a concern, but
electric utilities take their obligation to safeguard public
health very seriously."
Since 1990, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. has reduced
its emissions of nitrous oxide by 60 percent, sulfur dioxide
by 50 percent, and carbon dioxide by 25 percent, said spokesman
Ralph DiNicola.
"It is one thing to stand on the sidelines and
bark about what the problem is, and a totally different
responsibility to produce reliable, affordable electricity
in an environmentally responsible manner," DiNicola
said. "While these people would like to grow food in
their back yards, and pedal bicycles to power medical diagnostic
equipment, that is not what the rest of the world wants
to do."
Members of the environmental groups that commissioned
the report said the EPRI study the utilities cite is inadequate
because it examines a year of data from a single city, Atlanta,
instead of investigations in dozens of cities over longer
periods of time.
They said they reached their conclusions in the new
study by linking emissions data from the nation’s power
plants with past studies that correlated pollution levels
to sickness and death rates.
American Lung Association Vice President Ron White
called the environmental groups’ analysis "state of
the art," and said electric utilities’ objections were
a "smokescreen" effort to hide their major pollution
role.
He said small children and the elderly are particularly
vulnerable to the type of pollution discussed in the report,
as is anyone who suffers from asthma, chronic emphysema
and bronchitis.
Clear the Air coalition campaign director Angela
Ledford said living within 50 to 100 miles of an older,
coal powered plant increases the likelihood of asthma attacks
and other illnesses.
"This pollution is shortening the lives of everyone,"
Ledford said.
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