Exposure to various air pollutants has also been linked to adverse pregnancy-related and birth outcomes including gestational hypertension, premature delivery, and low birth weight (1013). Author affiliations: Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions and College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (Sandie Ha, Hui Hu, Xiaohui Xu); Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida (Jeffrey Roth); and Shanghai Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Particle Pollution and Prevention (LAP3), School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, People's Republic of China (Haidong Kan). et al. It is based on nationally consistent data and uses an approach that combines environmental indicatorsand demographics in maps and reports. For example, higher exposure to sulfur dioxide has been linked to PTD among singleton births (28) and decreased term birth weight (29). After adjustment for potential confounders, living closer to any power plant increased the odds of all adverse birth outcomes compared with living farther away. et al. We unfortunately did not have residential mobility information to address this issue. (617) 547-5552. Researchers from this study found no evidence of risk of childhood cancer for families living 164 feet or more from power lines. Furthermore, when studying a proposed natural gas power plant, a California Energy Commission analysis found that local one-hour concentrations of NO2 (one form of NOx) would nearly double from their background levels. Roussos-Ross More information about the Power Plant Retirements map can be foundhere. This finding has also been observed in Taiwan by Tsai et al. Forms EIA uses to collect energy data including descriptions, links to survey instructions, and additional information. Senior Energy Analyst, James Gignac Living next to natural gas wells is no fun From health threats to truck traffic, from rank odors to sinking property values, Coloradans explain what it's like to live near The photo to the right shows gas venting out of an open pipe shortly before the explosion on February 7th. In addition, when exposure was changed to number of plants within 20 km, coal plants had the highest association with all adverse birth outcomes. spreadsheet presents all the information available through EPA's environmental justice mapping and screening tool,EJSCREEN. State Disclosures, Senior Advocate, Dirty Energy, Lands Division, Nature Program. We also used Census 2000 data to determine census block group income as a proxy for neighborhood socioeconomic status and urbanity. . A blog on science, politics, and activism. Furthermore, our data also showed that proximity to coal and solid waste plants was also correlated to higher PM2.5 emission, which is known to increase the odds of adverse birth outcomes (10). Wilhelm We also compared the odds for different buffer sizes of <5, 59.9, 1019.9, and 20 km from a power plant. This association remained consistent in our analyses for total number of power plants within a 20 km radius and stratified analyses for different types of power plants. A This paper presents a study on underground natural gas pipeline safety distance via experimental and numerical approaches. et al. Natural gas power plants emit more NOx when they are starting up; on average, they emit anywhere between three and seven times as much NOx during start-up than during one hour of full-load operation. TH MJ Checking with the relevant authorities is good.The standard Covariates were chosen on the basis of a directed acyclic graph (Supplementary Data available at http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/). A) Daily concentrations of PM2.5 during the study period 20032005 at power plants; B) mean daily PM2.5 concentration at residential address during the first trimester for births in Florida from 2004 to 2005. I dont think it matters. You can walk around in a nuclear reactor perfectly safely now. I dont believe that there are any negative health effects For example, for oil plants, we compared births within 20 km with births not within 20 km from any plant (e.g., excluding those who were closer to any other types of plant). J Demand for natural gas fluctuates daily and seasonally, but production and pipeline imports are relatively constant in the short term. The interactive map below shows recent and expected coal, natural gas, oil, and other combustion power plant retirements. EIA's free and open data available as API, Excel add-in, bulk files, and widgets. Like most retrospective studies, this study has several limitations. Terms, Conditions, and Privacy Policy. De Mouzon Lets make sure we bring everyone along in the transition to clean electricity. In the continuous exposure analyses, only solid waste plants (OR = 1.03, 95% CI: 1.01, 1.04) had an association with term LBW for each 5-km decrease in distance. Strmgren Specifically, for each 5-km decrease in the distance to any power plant, the odds of term LBW, PTD, and VPTD increased by 1.1% (odds ratio (OR) = 1.011, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.002, 1.020), 1.8% (OR = 1.018, 95% CI: 1.013, 1.023), and 2.2% (OR = 1.022, 95% CI: 1.010, 1.034), respectively. They produce toxic and radioactive waste and spew it into the air, poisoning the environment, sickening people, and causing climate change. Oh wait The content of this manuscript is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders or data provider. For the layout of plant, prescriptive distances between equipment items are generally used, according to a tabular matrix Regional energy information including dashboards, maps, data, and analyses. A recent risk analysis estimated that particulate matter less than 2.5 m in diameter (PM2.5) and ozone, estimated from the 2005 air quality level, were responsible for 130,000 and 4,700 excess deaths, respectively (9). Do you need one? Stolz Wang Chen Populations found to be particularly vulnerable to environmental pollution include the poor, the elderly, the very young, those already in poor health, and/or indigenous populations. Natural gas delivery infrastructure has three categories: Natural gas transported on the mainline natural gas transportation (pipeline) system in the United States must meet specific quality measures so that the pipeline network (or grid) provides uniform-quality natural gas. Brumberg All active power plants during the study period and eligible births were geocoded and mapped using ArcGIS V10.1 (ESRI, Redlands, California). Peacock WebAs long as you follow sensible natural gas safety precaution and understand what to do in a gas leak, natural gas is safe in the home. H Maps, tools, and resources related to energy disruptions and infrastructure. In general, PM2.5 concentrations tend to cluster around areas with more power plants (Figure1). The following map displays the percentage of plants within each state that are in communities with at least one key demographic at or above the 80thpercentile nationally. Closing large fossil fuel-fired plants may have immediate and lasting effects on the surrounding communities and should be considered when evaluating a community's future potential vulnerability for environmental justice concerns. Nearest distance to a power plant showed significant and negative regression coefficients with four neurobehavioral symptoms: affective problems, anxiety problems, A Energy use in homes, commercial buildings, manufacturing, and transportation. SC We also categorized the proximity to power Cifuentes T Bremner As noted in the Data Considerations section, information about the adjacent communities can be used to raise awareness and to help people understand the extent to which there may be disproportionate, adverse impacts on overburdened communities. Seigneur The addresses we geocoded to determine proximity to power plants were residential addresses at birth. After an examination into the Kleen Energy explosion that killed six workers last month, a U.S. Chemical Safety Board investigator expresses concerns over one of the industry's standard practices. Liu et al. Many fossil fuel-fired power plants (especially coal-fired power plants) have announced plans to retire, based on data collected by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). S Su Our results for covariates were consistent with those of other studies. The graph below compares the key demographics ofcommunities near power plants to national averages. Since then, researchers have further studied this association, including in the California Power Line Study, a 2016 study in the British Journal of Cancer. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions at the State Level, through 2018, Monthly Crude Oil and Natural Gas Production, Annual Solar Photovoltaic Module Shipments Report, Midwest and Rocky Mountain Transportation Fuels Markets, East Coast and Gulf Coast Transportation Fuels Markets. Natural gas is burned to generate electricity by passing hot pressurized gases through either a combined-cycle combustion turbine (CCCT) or simple-cycle combustion turbine (SCCT) connected to an electric generator. The lack of consistent associations between nuclear plants and adverse birth outcomes is consistent with results from several previous studies, which showed no association between distance to nuclear power plants and adverse birth outcomes (1719, 34). UCS recently co-sponsored a bill in the California legislature that was designed to shed light on pollution from natural gas power plants and require better planning for pollution reductions from plants. When you sign up you'll become a member of NRDC's Activist Network. P Demand for these electric plants is increasing, and the thousands of workers who will be constructing them, and working in them, will rely on better protocols and oversight for their safety. Second, we use PM2.5 as a surrogate for pollution from power plants to determine 1) the level of pollution exposure during pregnancy for women living close to power plants and 2) whether the amount of pollution depends on fuel type. Some places in the country, however, still have setbacks for homes that are less then 300 feet. Midwest Senior Policy Manager. Fetal sex and preterm birth: Are males at greater risk? WebGangadharan et al. Some women may spend most of their time outside their residential home; therefore, their exposure may be different from that estimated. The percentage of plants located in or near communities with an average greater than the national average is on the right side of the graph (green). The Author 2015. During the study period, power plants in the United States emitted an estimated annual average of 2,491,971 metric tons of carbon dioxide, 10,431 metric tons of sulfur dioxide, and 4,212 metric tons of nitric oxides (27). A Short, timely articles with graphics on energy, facts, issues, and trends. Figure1 shows a map of the spatial distribution of active power plants and the average annual PM2.5 concentrations in Florida during 20032005. Xu Those who were closest to nuclear plants (mean = 7.7 (SD, 1.9) g/m3) and other plants (mean = 8.5 (SD, 2.0) g/m3) were exposed to the lowest levels of PM2.5 (Figure2B; Supplementary Data). A three-mile radius isconsistent with environmental justice literature and studies, including theEJ Screening Reportfor the Clean Power Plan. Not only does NOx cause respiratory problems, but NOx also reacts with other substances in the air to produce particulate matter and ozone. The following sections are presented below: There are over 3,400 fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States. Additional layers which can be toggled on/off include power plant emissions, area demographics, and tribal areas. O'Brien Prenatal exposure was assigned to each birth as the average daily PM2.5 concentration over the first trimester for the grid in which it falls. Basic stages of natural gas processing and treatment. To ensure that clustering was not influencing our results, we performed a sensitivity analysis using the number of power plants within 20 km as exposure. Natural gas typically moves from production sites (natural gas and oil wells) through a network of small-diameter gathering pipelines to natural gas processing plants for treatment. Spengler We were unable to perform analyses for more refined proximity categories because of low sample size for certain cells. Briefly, this model uses hierarchical Bayesian methods to combine data from observed air quality data measured at air monitors, the National Emission Inventory, and meteorological and photochemical data to produce 12 12 km gridded estimates of daily average PM2.5 concentrations. D Gas blows are routine practice within the industry. BE The graph will update to show the number of plants in five percentileranges between zero and one hundred for the selected demographic. . H How Much Land Would it Require to Get Most of Our Electricity from Wind and Solar? Bremner WebNatural gas power plants produce considerable carbon dioxide, although less than coal plants do. U.S. Chemical Safety Board Lead Investigator Don Holmstrom said in a statement last week: We strongly caution natural gas power plants and other industries against the venting of high-pressure natural gas in or near work sites. Fig. Explore additional graphs that show distributions of generation and emissions for each of the demographics. C Results were consistent when exposure was categorized by number of power plants. Additionally, we were not able to identify critical windows of exposure that underlie these associations. Because pollution can travel over long distances from a power plant, the impacts of both potential increases and decreases in power plant emissions can be felt many miles away, meaning that the air quality in a community can be due to far-distant sources as well as those sited within a community. CA The graph below displays the number of plants located in or near communities which meet or exceed the 80thpercentile nationally for each key demographic. Air pollution has been extensively linked to many negative health outcomes ranging from cardiorespiratory diseases (13) to hospitalizations (46) and mortality (7, 8). The results remained consistent when exposure was categorized (Table3). LA We use cookies to improve your experience. Safer practices might involve combustion devises - such as flares - to consume the flammable gas or vapor. Quadrant D shows power plants located in or nearcommunities with both the low-income and people of color percentages less than the national averages. However, in addition to adjustment for maternal education, which serves as a proxy for socioeconomic status, we also adjusted for census-tract-level median household income from the US Census 2000 to control for ecological (or population-level) socioeconomic status factors. Zhu The association between adverse birth outcomes and total number of power plants within 20 km was determined. Second, just because the electric sector is cleaner than the transportation sector does not mean the electric sector is not dirty. Greenhouse gas data, voluntary reporting, electric power plant emissions. Vijayaraghavan To our knowledge, few existing studies have evaluated the association between residential proximity to different types of power plants and adverse birth outcomes (20). These keydemographicsand information about nearby power plants may help identify a community's potential vulnerability to environmental concerns. J Natural gas already emits half the CO 2 emissions of a coal-fired power plant. Romieu JavaScript appears to be disabled on this computer. Because living near power plants may expose people to additional sources of air pollution, this proximity may increase their risk of having negative health endpoints. Though UCSs legislative effort did not succeed this year, UCS is committed to finding solutions that allow us to transition away from natural gas in a way that is not only economical, but also equitable. Still, being aware of the characteristics of communities closest to power plants is a starting point in understanding the potential sources of pollution that may impact a community and how changes in a power plants air emissions may affect the air quality experienced by some of those already vulnerable to environmental burdens. First, natural gas power plants do not move they just sit there and emit NOx when they are operating. Notethat this applies to the site boundary, not to theactual well site.". . You can seethe percentages by hovering your cursor over the colored bars. Ren We also categorized the proximity to power plants into several categories of buffers: <5, 59.9, 1019.9, and 20 km. Y G RE: How far away should you live from a power plant? From a coal-fired power plant I would want to be at least ten miles upwind and nowhere near th Anderson We further identified that solid waste plants had the strongest association with term LBW, while oil, gas, and solid waste plants all had strong associations with PTD and VPTD. Tsai Distance from the nearest power plants was measured in kilometers. Martinez Brook Few studies have assessed the associations between residential proximity to power plants and adverse birth outcomes including preterm delivery (PTD), very preterm delivery (VPTD), and term low birth weight (LBW). Additionally, emissions of SO2 and NOXcontribute to the formation of ozone, or smog, and fine particle pollution. SC R with both a low-income percentage and people of color percentage greater than the national averages. J Lanki . Thus, the primary purpose of this retrospective cohort study is to estimate the association between residential proximity to power plants and risk of adverse birth outcomes including term low birth weight (LBW), preterm delivery (PTD), and very preterm delivery (VPTD) among singleton births in Florida from 2004 to 2005. This method assumes that pregnant women stayed at those same addresses throughout their pregnancy. However, studies on residential mobility and its effects on air pollution assessment suggest a very low degree of misclassification (42, 43). Bronson S This almost-great Raspberry Pi alternative is missing one key feature, This $75 dock turns your Mac Mini into a Mac Studio (sort of), Samsung's Galaxy S23 Plus is the Goldilocks of its 2023 smartphone lineup, How the New Space Race Will Drive Innovation, How the metaverse will change the future of work and society, Digital transformation: Trends and insights for success, Software development: Emerging trends and changing roles. HR The pamphlet I got in the mail the other day shows drawings that include three gas turbines, three step up transformers, gas compressor building and three stack towers coming off the turbines. R All rights reserved. Something ignited the gas that was being used in a scheduled cleaning procedure at the Kleen Energy Plant in Connecticut. Natural Resources Defense Council 2023 Privacy Policy The national averages of low-income population and the people of color population are drawn as reference lines forcomparison. A lock (LockA locked padlock) or https:// means youve safely connected to the .gov website. Chen Williams Director of Energy Research & Analysis, Guillermo Pereira et al. Lee Zeitlin RD (20), who reported that the odds of PTD were 14 times higher among women who lived within 3 km of a thermal power plant compared with those who lived farther than 3 km. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is home to the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). 4.5 shows the two schemes considered by the authors. S This is especially true because the by-products of coal plants also include toxic components including sulfur dioxide and nitric oxides, all of which are also associated with negative health outcomes (32). Steve Clemmer For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. M To help answer questions about environmental justice in the communities around power plants, information on the following six key demographics (e.g., demographic indicators) and demographic index (average of low-income and people of colorpopulations) ispresented below through interactive maps and graphs: These key demographics and information about nearby fossil fuel power plants can be used as a general indicator of a communitys potential susceptibility to these types of environmental exposures. Association Between Proximity to Power Plants and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Florida From 2004 to 2005. Peng D C Proximity to any power plant appeared to increase the odds of all adverse birth outcomes for both continuous and categorical exposure in the unadjusted model. Wiesel H By continuing, you accept our use of cookies. 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