Improved asthma outcomes observed in the vicinity of coal power plant retirement, retrofit and conversion to natural gas

Abstract

Coal-fired power plants release substantial air pollution, including over 60% of U.S. sulfur dioxide (SO 2 ) emissions in 2014. Such air pollution may exacerbate asthma however direct studies of health impacts linked to power plant air pollution are rare. Here, we take advantage of a natural experiment in Louisville, Kentucky, where one coal-fired power plant retired and converted to natural gas, and three others installed SO 2 emission control systems between 2013 and 2016. Dispersion modeling indicated exposure to SO 2 emissions from these power plants decreased after the energy transitions. We used several analysis strategies, including difference-in-differences, first-difference, and interrupted time-series modeling to show that the emissions control installations and plant retirements were associated with reduced asthma disease burden related to ZIP code-level hospitalizations and emergency room visits, and individual-level medication use as measured by digital medication sensors.

Bipartite Interference and Air Pollution Transport: Estimating Health Effects of Power Plant Interventions

“…In the power plant evaluation, the entries of T are generated directly from HyADS simulations, representing the aforementioned source-receptor matrix. Note that this characterization of interference in the power plant setting is based only on wind fields and parcel movement trajectories, and is not affected by scrubber installations, that is, T is fixed and not affected by S. Previous epidemiological investigations have not used T directly, but collapsed over the rows of T to define a single metric of total exposure (weighted by emissions) for each outcome unit, and then estimated associations between health outcomes and this metric (Henneman et al, 2019b;Casey et al, 2020). Retaining individual links between interventional units and outcome units in T is differentiating priority of the methodology pursued here.…”

“…To characterize the structure of interference, we deploy a newly-developed reduced-complexity atmospheric model, called HYSPLIT Average Dispersion (HyADS), to model the movement of pollution through space and time (Henneman et al, 2019a). HyADS has been recently used in epidemiological studies of exposure to power plant pollution (Henneman et al, 2019b;Casey et al, 2020), but in a manner that collapses exposure metrics across individual power plants, precluding inferences about interventions applied at individual plants. In contrast, this work uses the HyADS model to characterize the bipartite network of relationships between interventional units and outcome units, leading to a notion of a "neighborhood" or "upwind" treatment.…”

A Mechanistic Model of Annual Sulfate Concentrations in the United States

“…The forecasted reduction in SO 4 2exposure after intervention at the four other power plants appear largely the same; we thus recommend an intervention order determined by the FGD implementation cost at the remaining four facilities. However, we are happy to report that, of the facilities still in operation in 2020 (Clifty Creek, Kyger Creek, Martin Lake, and Rockport), both Clifty Creek and Kyger Creek have FGD technologies in place to reduce SO 2 emissions by 90% (Casey et al 2020).…”

A comparative analysis of social vulnerability and proximity to coal‐fired power plants and windmill farms

“…Several published studies examine the health impacts of proximity to coal‐fired power plants. They found that residents living near these facilities face higher risks of adverse birth outcomes (Casey et al, 2018; Ha et al, 2015), asthma (Casey et al, 2020; Liu et al, 2012), respiratory disease (Kravchenko & Lyerly, 2018; Liu et al, 2012), lung and bladder cancers in women aged 75 and over (Collarile et al, 2017), cardiovascular disease (Kravchenko & Lyerly, 2018), poor child health (Dubnov et al, 2007; Kravchenko & Lyerly, 2018), infant mortality (Kravchenko & Lyerly, 2018), and autism (Palmer et al, 2009). Proximity to coal‐fired power plants was also associated with lower property values (Blomquist, 1974; Clark & Nieves, 1994; Davis, 2011; Farber, 1998).…”