The Toll from Coal...

[cynatnite]

The Clean Air Task Force has released a new report, The Toll from Coal, which is "an updated assessment of death and disease from America's dirtiest energy source."

The website has an interactive map showing the public health risks of coal. You can drill down to a region or a specific coal fired power plant.

In Tennessee, researchers found that health impacts from coal-fired power plant emissions remain severe, with pollution from power plants estimated to cause 499 deaths, 340 hospital admissions and 640 heart attacks per year. According to the report, Tennessee ranks 8th in mortality risk.

"One thing we have learned over the last decade, is that intelligent regulation works, and without significant cost increases to the industry or the consumer," said Ulla Reeves, regional program director for the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. "We have made a lot of progress in reducing the massive public health costs of emissions from coal-fired power plants, but obviously much more needs to be done to ensure that modern pollution controls are installed at all coal-fired power plants, and that we finally put and end to the death toll from coal."

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