2000

Unveiled the Toll from Coal

As part of the Power Plant Pollution Campaign, CATF produced Death, Disease, and Dirty Power, the first-ever national study of the health effects of coal power in the U.S. Among all industrial sources of air pollution, none pose a greater risk to human health and the environment than coal-fired power plants.

Emissions from coal-fired power plants contribute to global warming, ozone smog, acid rain, regional haze, and — perhaps most consequential of all from a public health standpoint — fine particle pollution. In 2000 and again in 2004, Clean Air Task Force commissioned comprehensive studies of health impacts caused by fine particle air pollution from the nation’s roughly 500 coal-fired power plants. Each study incorporated the latest scientific findings concerning the link between air pollution and public health, as well as up-to-date emissions information.

We later created an interactive web-based map, Toll from Coal, that allows users to access key data about specific dirty coal plants including their emissions and numbers of attributable adverse health impacts for their pollution such as premature deaths, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and asthma attacks.

Learn more about the Toll from Coal.