Changes

In 2000 and again in 2004, Abt Associates issued a study commissioned by the Clean Air Task Force quantifying the deaths and other health affects attributable to the fine particle pollution from power plants. In 2004 and again in 2010, Abt Associates again revised the study, the results of which were released by the Clean Air Task Force.<ref>[http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/The_Toll_from_Coal.pdf "The Toll from Coal: An Updated Assessment of Death and Disease from America's Dirtiest Energy Source,"] Clean Air Task Force, September 2010.</ref> The 2010 report found that over 13,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of cases of chronic bronchitis, acute bronchitis, asthma-related episodes and asthma-related emergency room visits, congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarction, dysrhythmia, ischemic heart disease, chronic lung disease, peneumonia each year are attributable to fine particle pollution from U.S. coal-fired power plants. Fine particle pollution is formed from a combination of soot, acid droplets, and metals formed from sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and soot. Among those particles, the most dangerous are the smallest (PM2.5, or smaller than 2.5 microns), which ares are so tiny that they can be absorbed into the bloodstream and transported to vital organs, evading the lung's natural defenses. These adverse impacts are especially severe among the elderly children, and those with respiratory disease. Low-income and minority populations are disproportionately impacted as well, due to the tendency to site power plants away from affluent communities. The table below estimates the share of that death and illness attributable to the Widows Creek Fossil Plant. Abt assigned a value of $7,300,000 to a 2010 mortality, based on a range of government and private studies. Valuations of illnesses ranged from $52 for an asthma episode to $440,000 for a case of chronic bronchitis.<ref>[http://www.catf.us/resources/publications/files/Abt-Technical_Support_Document_for_the_Powerplant_Impact_Estimator_Software_Tool.pdf "Technical Support Document for the Powerplant Impact Estimator Software Tool,"] Prepared for the Clean Air Task Force by Abt Associates, July 2010</ref>