Statement
of James M. Jeffords
Health
Impacts of Power Plant Pollution
Senate
Committee on Environment and Public Works
October
2, 2002
Thank you all for being here today.
I'm glad we have the chance to come together to learn more about the health
impacts of air pollution.
Not long ago, I was shocked to hear that as many as 50,000 people or
more may be dying prematurely every year from exposure to fine particulate
pollution, also known as PM-2.5 or sometimes as soot.
This chart, based on the work done by many researchers, illustrates this
terrible situation. More people are
dying from this dirty air than are killed in auto accidents, from breast cancer
and other causes. Most of this
pollution comes from the burning of fossil fuels. This combustion creates tiny, almost microscopic particles from
solid matter and gases. Then, the wind
spreads them far and wide, sometimes thousands of miles.
A few years ago, researchers documented fine particles coming from China
and being deposited in the Pacific Northwest.
More recently, the Asian Brown Cloud has been in the news because of the
continent-sized nature of this smog, soot and air toxics phenomenon.
Luckily, our problems are not on the scale of the Asian Brown Cloud
anymore. We can thank the Clean Air Act
for that. The Act has been very
effective in reducing pollution to date.
And the Act provides for even greater reductions in the future if it is
fully, faithfully and swiftly implemented.
I hope that it will be, but the signs haven't been too promising of
late.
Since the 1990 Amendments, information on the health effects of fine
particle pollution has increased dramatically. Unfortunately, most of the news is bad.
In March, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported on a
study which found that for increasing levels of fine particulate matter there
is a corresponding increasing risk of mortality from all causes. There was an even greater risk of associated
cardiopulmonary and lung cancer mortality.
Those findings mean that there are approximately 130 million people who
live in areas polluted by fine particles who have about the same increased risk
of dying from heart or lung disease as people who live with cigarette smokers
and regularly experience second-hand smoke.
That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bad news. There is substantial and mounting evidence
that besides death, heart disease or lung cancer, fine particles also cause
decreased lung function, chronic bronchitis, and aggravated asthma. Exactly how these particles cause such
damage and destruction once they get deep down into the lungs is not entirely
known.
But what we do know with some certainty angers me. A report for the Clean Air Task Force found
that fine particle pollution from power plants is responsible for as many as
30,000 deaths annually.
As you can see from the chart on the left side, that's more people than
die from homicides or drunk driving accidents every year. On the right side, the chart shows how many
people we could save by drastically cutting pollution from power plants -
coincidentally those are the lives saved annually by the reductions in the
Clean Power Act.
Most of that fine particle pollution appears to be coming from the
older, "grandfathered" power plants.
Those are the ones built before 1972 that were largely exempt from
applying New Source Performance Standards.
These are the same plants that are opposing government efforts to make
them apply new, cleaner technology when they make changes to their
facilities. And the Administration is
now thinking of making the loophole even larger through changes to the New Source
Review regulations.
That is exactly the wrong direction.
We cannot afford to increase pollution in that way. And we certainly cannot afford to continue
wasting the lives of thousands of people every year because of pollution that
is controllable and coming from obvious sources in our own backyards.
We, the Congress, the Administration, the elected officials, have a
responsibility to act to prevent harm to the American public when we have
evidence that a threat exists. The
terrible attacks of 9/11 took the lives of 2,824 innocent people at the World
Trade Center. There could not be a
clearer more tangible threat to our national security.
Our rapid response has reached every corner of the world and almost
every facet of American life. Now, it
may lead us to an expanded war effort that could be expensive in dollars and
lives.
What troubles me is that we have equally clear evidence of the threat of
death and damage occurring annually from fine particulate pollution. And yet, there is no huge call to action
from most in Congress or the Administration. Every year in the New York City
area, power plant pollution causes 2,290 deaths, according to the studies we'll
be discussing today.
Saving these lives doesn't require a war and it won't cost that
much. It just requires a commitment and
swift action. Perhaps our witnesses
will give us good news. Maybe the
threat of fine particle pollution is not as bad as the headlines and the
studies suggest. I hope there's a slim chance
that's right, because knowingly throwing away lives when we know how to save
them just doesn't make sense.