 |
 |
|||
 |
 |
|||
 |
||||
|
week
of 3/13/02
|
||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Old
power plants are killing us SMN The American Medical Association released an important study last week in its widely-respected journal, one linking long-term exposure to air pollution from coal-fired power plants and factories to an increased risk of dying from lung cancer. The study revealed that exposure to fine particulate matter and sulfate pollutants increase the risk of dying from lung cancer by 12 percent. These particles have the same effect as secondhand cigarette smoke, says the report’s authors. The study, which looked at 500,000 people and 16 years of health records, is examined in this week’s Washington Post’s national weekly edition. The study adds to a growing body of evidence that proves that the fine particulate matter produced by old power plants, factories and diesel engines is extremely dangerous. The particles are so small they go by the lung’s normal defense mechanisms and lodge deep in our respiratory system. The study was conducted by researchers at the New York University School of Medicine. Previous studies, one by Harvard researchers and the American Cancer Society, found a strong link between cardiopulmonary disease — asthma, heart attacks and strokes —and particulate matter pollution. Now we have evidence that it also causes lung cancer. The researchers probably had no idea — as many outsiders don’t — that we in the Smokies breathe air that is just as polluted from this particulate matter as the air in the country’s largest metropolitan areas. By a trick of geography, wind patterns, and history, pollution from the old coal-fired TVA plants and other factories in the Midwest shower their pollution down on us. All those outside pollutants, combined with what we produce, turns our air into a cesspool that is extremely unhealthy. EPA research suggests that 31,000 deaths each year are related to power plant emissions. By comparison, 16,000 die each year from drunken driving accidents. This new information should provide more ammunition. The N.C. General Assembly should resume negotiations this session on the Clean Smokestacks Bill, which stalled in House committee. Encourage lawmakers to support it. At the national level, Bush proposals would weaken many clean air laws, and his proposals for coal-fired plants would take 18 years to improve air quality in the region. At that rate, a newborn will breathe unhealthy air until it is grown. Its chances of getting lung cancer are 12 times greater than that of kids raised where the air is clean. That is just unacceptable, and leaders who can make a difference need to know that. Clean air must take a higher priority. |