Report says cheap coal comes with hidden costs
A new report from the Pembina Institute detailing the potential health effects of burning coal urges Alberta to up its rules governing the energy source and ultimately eliminate its use.
“A Costly Diagnosis; Subsidizing coal power with Albertans’ health” was co-authored by the Pembina Institute the Lung Association the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and the Asthma Society of Canada.
Alberta has six coal-fired power plants in 18 individual units which generate a combined total of 6200 megawatts every year. Another two are due to come online in the near future adding 560 mw to the system. Coal accounts for 64 per cent of the province’s electricity generation more than any other province. While Alberta’s use of coal-fired power has increased 14 per cent since 2002 other jurisdictions are phasing it out. Ontario is scheduled to stop using it completely by the end of 2014.
There has never been an epidemiological study in Canada of the effect of coal pollution on human health yet “A Costly Diagnosis” states reviews of available data by both Environment Canada and the report’s own researchers concluding air pollution from burning coal is associated with serious illness.
“There is a clear link between exposure to these pollutants and higher morbidity and premature mortality from respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses” it reads.
“Coal plants are a major source of toxic air contaminants including mercury nitrogen oxides sulphur dioxide and particulate matter. The study shows that in Alberta each year this pollution contributes to over 4000 asthma episodes over 700 emergency visits for respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and around 80 hospital admissions with chronic exposures resulting in nearly 100 premature deaths” the coalition stated in a press release accompanying the report’s March 26 public release.
The report’s authors are encouraging Alberta to craft coal and associated pollution restrictions more stringent than those created last year by the federal government.
Most of Alberta’s coal-fired power plants are clustered west of Edmonton and Grande Cache where the report says prevailing winds bring pollution from the plants to the nearby cities for a majority of the year. The nearest to Calgary is ATCO’s Sheerness station roughly 200 kilometres northeast of the city.
