XPost: alt.politics.trump, alt.politics, alt.politics.libertarian   
   From: dddts@gmail.com   
      
   The good news is that Trump likes coal and kills lots and lots of   
   Americans, especially Red State Americans.   Who doesn't like dead   
   Americans!   
      
   More Coal = More Dead Rightists   
      
   Who can argue with that!   
      
   Scientific American   
      
      
   November 28, 2023   
      
   3 min read   
      
   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 it’s just another air pollutant,   
   but it’s much more harmful than we thought, and its mortality burden has   
   been seriously underestimated,” said lead author Lucas Henneman, an   
   assistant professor in George Mason’s department of civil, environmental   
   and infrastructure engineering.   
      
   To calculate the pollution’s 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.   
      
   What’s 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.”   
      
      
   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 don’t 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.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)