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Study: Coal-related health problems will lead to 13,500 premature deaths this year in US
Pollution in coal-fired power-plant emissions will cause an estimated 13,500 premature deaths nationwide and roughly 945 in New York this year, according to a Clean Air Task Force report released Thursday.
The study estimates that the total cost of health problems related to coal plants is more than $100 billion a year in the United States.
New York ranks third for total number of deaths, hospital admissions and heart attacks projected, but it doesn't make it into the top 15 states for per capita mortality risk. But the top metropolitan area in the country affected by the pollution includes New York City and parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with an expected 799 deaths, 698 hospital admissions and 1,541 heart attacks this year.
"We've got all these dirty dinosaurs out there, spewing out pollutants when the technology exists to clean them up, but what we're lacking is the regulatory power," said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate with the New York Public Interest Research Group.
Besides emissions from its own power plants, New York is downwind from coal-burning plants concentrated in states west of New York, she said.