Local residents enjoy a day outside by the Connectticutt River in Holyoke, MA. Emmisions from the Mt. Tom power plant nearby can have severe health effects for people breathing the air in the area or eating the fish from the river. Respiratory damage due to air pollution is the most common heath effect, and children are hardest hit by it.
Human respiratory systems are the hardest hit by pollutants that are emitted into the air. Air pollution comes form many sources, including burning of coal and oil by the "Filthy 14" and similar power plants else where . This is especially frightening because people exercising outdoors often, usually thought of as a healthy activity, are actually at high risk from air pollution. Children, who breathe at a faster rate, spend a lot of time outdoors, and are still developing, are also at high risk of damage to their lungs from air pollution.
Ground-level ozone is the major cause of smog, a major national
pollutant. Over 117 million
people live in areas where breathing the air is unsafe because
of ozone (USPIRG report). Ozone is formed
when nitrogen oxides (NOx) combine with volatile organic compounds
(VOCs) while in the presence of light. When ozone is inhaled,
it can cause swelling and inflammation, and eventually it can
decrease the amount of oxygen that reaches the body with each
breath (USPIRG report). One out of three days in the summer, New
Englanders suffer from breathing in high levels of smog. This
leads to lung inflammation,
coughing, asthma attacks, and ultimately to hospitalization from
respiratory distress. Each summer, over 8,000 people go to the
hospital and over 24,000 people make use of emergency rooms in
Massachusetts due to respiratory illness caused by air pollution
(MassPIRG, Clean Up the Filthy Five).
Fine particles that come from soil chemicals and aerosols are
called soot. Power plants in New England emit hundreds of thousands
of tons of pollution which cause the formation of soot. These
fine microscopic particles can penetrate deep into the human lungs
where they are likely to cause extreme damage and even death.
They can not be expelled through coughing, swallowing, or sneezing;
they just sit in the lungs causing loss of heart and lung function
(USPIRG report). In New
England, an estimated 1,500 people a year die a premature death
due to fine particle pollution. Death is,
of course, an extreme consequence of this pollutant. More often
than not, it will cause hospitalization, visits to the
emergency room, asthma attacks, impaired breathing, and/or reduced
lung function.
Combustion of fossil fuels, such as gas, oil, and coal, by electric
power plants and other sources causes fine particle air pollution.
Among those fossil fuels, coal burning is the largest source of
particle pollution. Particles enter the air either directly from
the burning of fossil fuels, or through nitrogen oxides (NOx),
or sulfur dioxide (SO2) released in combustion and then turned
into aerosol acids (USPIRG report).
Power plants emit air toxins, such as mercury, arsenic, beryllium,
cadmium, chromium, and nickel. The most is know about mercury,
of which New England power plants contribute 1,000 tons a year
to the environment. This mercury is emitted into the air mostly
through combustion of fossil fuels. In the air, mercury goes through
photochemical oxidation, creating inorganic mercury, which reaches
the Earth through snow and rainfall, eventually ending up in lakes
and rivers (USPIRG report). There it reacts with bacteria to form
organic mercury, which is toxic to humans. Coal and oil burning electric power plants are the
largest source of mercury emissions (32.8%), according to a report
by USPIRG. However, just a tiny bit of
mercury is enough to contaminate a whole lake. This toxin reaches
the human system through fish contaminated with mercury. Throughout
New England, people are regularly warned not to eat the fish because
of contamination.
Humans, especially developing fetuses and young
children, as well as animals can suffer from severe neurological damage,
if contaminated by mercury. In children, such contamination leads
to developmental damage,
impeding the learning to walk and talk, and causing mental retardation,
loss of vision, abnormal heart rates, and much more.