Report focuses on impact of power plant pollution

Air pollution from two Massachusetts coal-fired power plants is spread over a large region and adversely affects the health of hundreds of thousands of people. Harvard School of Public Health scientists Jonathan Levy and John D. Spengler used a sophisticated model to calculate exposures to 32 million residents living in New England, eastern New York, and New Jersey from these older plants. They estimated that current emissions from the Salem Harbor and Brayton Point power plants can be linked to more than 43,000 asthma attacks and nearly 300,000 incidents of upper respiratory symptoms per year in the region. The study also estimated that 159 premature deaths per year could be attributed to this pollution. The health risks are greatest for people living closer to the plants. Twenty percent of the total health impact occurs on 8 percent of the population that lives within 30 miles of the facilities.