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Clean Air Reports
Executive Summary
As the new home of NCPIRG's environmental work, Environment North Carolina can be contacted with any questions regarding this report.
There are over 100,000 children in North Carolina who suffer from asthma.1 Lynn and Mary McLean, ages 10 and 7, are among them. The McLeans moved from South Florida in 1995, just before Mary was born. When Virginia and Jim researched their new home, they asked about churches, schools and jobs. They did not think to check the state’s air pollution levels. Today, because of their asthma, Lynn and Mary aren’t allowed to play outdoors on high smog days in Raleigh. If they do, they’re likely to become very ill, requiring several days of breathing treatments and steroid medication. Naturally, Virginia and Jim are quite attuned to the ozone forecast—the daily prediction of air pollution levels issued by state officials. But Lynn and Mary, like many of the state’s asthmatics, can feel the effects of air pollution even before the forecast is issued. Air pollution does more than keep children indoors during the summer months. In recent years, many scientific studies have linked soot pollution to visits to hospital emergency rooms, respiratory disease, heart attacks, and even premature death. The Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study confirming the link between air pollution and increased cancer risks. Mercury pollution—first emitted into the air and then settling in the beds of the state’s rivers, lakes, and streams, where it accumulates up the food chain contaminating fish—can cause neurological disorders in the state’s newborns. Coal-fired power plants are the single largest source of the state’s health-threatening air pollution. Therefore, one of the most practical and cost-effective ways of reducing air pollution is to require these plants to meet modern emission standards. Senate Bill 1078, the Clean Smokestacks Bill, pending in the North Carolina General Assembly, would effectively do this by mandating more than a 70 percent reduction in coal-fired power plant pollution. "We read in magazines that Raleigh was ranked as one of the best places to live in the United States. We did not know it would be one of the worst places to breathe." Virginia McLean of Raleigh, whose two daughters have asthma These measures are not free. But this analysis shows that no matter how the expenses of cleaning up the state’s power plants are borne, the benefits of clean, healthy air far outweigh the costs. By reducing deaths, emergency room visits, lost work days, and medical expenses related to air pollution, North Carolina would save more than six times the costs of cleaning up the state’s power plants. The evidence is clear: our health is worth it. 1. Clean Air Task Force, Children at Risk: How Air Pollution From Power Plants Threatens the Health of America’s Children, April 2002, p.19. |
