NEARLY TWO MILLION MICHIGAN CHILDREN BREATH POLLUTION FROM DIRTY POWER PLANTS

Kids at Risk for Asthma, Birth Defects and Premature Death: New Effort to Give Michigan Parents All the Facts

For Immediate Release: May 14, 2002

Contact: Isaac Elnecave, MEC, 517-487-9539 Megan Owens, PIRGIM, 734-662-6597 Vicki Levengood, NET, 517-333-5786

Doctors and advocacy groups announced today that the 1.9 million children in Michigan who live in the shadows of old, dirty coal-fired power plants are exposed to pollutants that cause a host of health problems, from asthma attacks to neonatal death and slowed brain development. Of these children living near power plants, 106,000 suffer from asthma.

"Right now, kids in Michigan are living near power plant smokestacks and breathing air loaded with all sorts of hazardous pollution," said of the Michigan Public Health Association. "Parents have good reason to be concerned, and they deserve to get the facts."

The American Lung Association of Michigan the Michigan Environmental Council, the National Environmental Trust and PIRGIM today released Children at Risk: How Air Pollution from Power Plants Threatens the Health of America's Children. Over the past few years, numerous peer-reviewed studies have appeared in scientific journals clearly documenting how pollution from power plants has serious long-term health consequences for children. Children at Risk, prepared by the Clean Air Task Force, provides parents with up-to-date, accessible information about how pollution from power plants impacts their children.

"Numerous scientific studies have established a link between air pollution and the health of children," said Dr. Michael Harbutt, (identification). "These studies show how critical it is that we address the problem of air pollution in our communities."

Children at Risk details the dangers of breathing power plant emissions and the children that are at risk, including how:
Dangerous "particulate matter" pollution can lead to neonatal death, cause serious health impacts such as asthma attacks, and slow lung function growth;
Ozone smog may permanently damage and stunt developing lungs, trigger asthma attacks and possibly cause asthma;
Air toxics like mercury and chromium can have devastating impacts on children and neonatal development, acting as carcinogens and neurotoxins; and
Recent research suggests that children are most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, which is caused in part by greenhouse gases released from power plants.

In Michigan, the report found that:
1,929,662 children live within a 30-mile radius of a coal-fired power plant.
40,440 of these children live in poverty.
106,194 of these children suffer from asthma, ranking Michigan 5th in the nation. 53,000 of these children live in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties alone.
3,079 schools are located within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, ranking Michigan 7th in the nation.

"Children at Risk shows that our children's health is at stake if we fail to clean up these plants, especially since we have the technology to do it," said Dr. Harbutt. "With a plan moving through Congress for a cleaner energy future, now is the time for parents to better understand the risks of air pollution on their children - and the ultimate cost of delayed action."

Unfortunately, rather than taking immediate steps to solve this health threat to our kids, the Bush administration has proposed a major rollback of the Clean Air Act, which requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make major, pollution-increasing plant modifications. Each year this program has kept more than a million tons of air pollution out of our skies.

Meanwhile, however, the Clean Power Act, introduced in the Senate by Sen. Jim Jeffords, is expected to come to a vote in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee next week. This bill requires the industry to make dramatic reductions in all four of the major power plant pollutants, including the first-ever mandatory CO2 emission cap. It also requires every power plant to meet modern emission limits

"For the sake of Michigan's children, we strongly urge Senators Stabenow and Levin to cosponsor of the Clean Power Act," said Megan Owens of PIRGIM.

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