Christmas came early this year for millions of Americans-especially those already afflicted with respiratory problems or other health issues-who live near coal-fired power plants in communities all across the United States, when the U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the first national standards designed to protect Americans and their families from power plant emissions of mercury and other toxic air pollutants such as arsenic, acid gas, nickel, selenium and cyanide.
New Mercury Standards Have Significant Health Benefits
The EPA estimates that the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and non-fatal 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also prevent 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms annually and account for about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.
"For the 20 million Americans with asthma - including 6.7 million children for whom breathing without thinking is not so routine and, who are more likely to sleep poorly at night and miss work or school by day - the content of the air they breathe is top of mind," said Bill McLin, president and CEO of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America (AAFA), an independent, not-for-profit voluntary health agency dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with asthma and allergies.
"This rule will set the first national safeguard that limits power plant emissions of mercury, arsenic and other toxic substances that burden the health of our children and communities," he said. "This new rule will help protect the health of those most at risk: children, teens, seniors, and people with chronic lung diseases like asthma."
Why Strong Mercury Standards are Needed
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards were more than 20 years in the making, the end result of a process that started when Congress passed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and gave the EPA a mandate to control toxic air pollutants such as mercury and arsenic.
According to the EPA, power plants are the largest remaining source of several toxic air pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, cyanide, and a number of other dangerous pollutants. For example, coal-fired power plants are responsible for half of the mercury and more than 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States.
Those shockingly high numbers remain true even though more than half of all coal-fired power plants today already use pollution control technologies designed to help them meet the new standards. Once these standards are final, they will ensure the 40 percent of power plants that represent the heart of the problem take the necessary steps to decrease toxic air pollution that routinely damages the health and shortens the lives of many Americans.
In praising the new standards, the Sierra Club called mercury "a potent brain poison that poses a particular threat to prenatal babies and young children." Exposure to mercury in the bloodstreams of pregnant and nursing women can result in birth defects and health issues among infants such as learning disabilities, lowered IQ, deafness, blindness and cerebral palsy.
U.S. coal-fired power plants pump more than 33 tons of mercury into the air each year. Once the mercury is airborne, it rains down on rivers, lakes and streams, where it accumulates in fish and shellfish that people then eat. In 2008, 40 percent of all U.S. lakes-approximately 16 million lake acres-were listed as having unsafe mercury levels.
The new protections announced this week by the Obama Administration will improve air quality for millions of Americans by cutting mercury pollution from both coal-fired and natural-gas power plants by more than 90 percent, acid gas emissions by 88 percent and sulfur dioxide emissions by 41 percent.
Economic Impacts and Benefits of the New Mercury Standards
The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards give power plants a lot of flexibility in implementing the new safeguards through a phased approach and the use of existing technologies. The public health and economic benefits of the new standards are estimated to be as much as $90 billion annually, far more than the cost of implementing them.
The EPA estimates that for every dollar spent reducing toxic air pollution from power plants, the American people will derive up to $9 in health benefits. The EPA also estimates that manufacturing, engineering, installing and maintaining the pollution controls to meet the new standards will provide about 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs.
"The bottom line is, this will mean fewer heart attacks and asthma attacks, fewer kids exposed to mercury, and thousands of good jobs for the American workers who will build, install, and operate the equipment to reduce these toxic pollutants," said U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-MA). "Smart health and environmental protections go hand in hand with economic growth and reliable, affordable energy."
The combination of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which was issued earlier this year, will prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000 asthma attacks among children, and 24,500 emergency room visits and hospital admissions. The two programs will provide up to $380 billion to American families in longer, healthier lives and reduced health care costs.
Also Read: