Until now, particulate matter from coal-fired power plants was thought to kill only a few hundred thousand people each year. A new study has shown that things are much worse than previously thought.

Coal is the main source of electricity in the world today; It produces more electricity than gas and much more than other electrical energy raw materials. Natural gas is replacing coal in the United States, but cheap gas is not available in most countries. For this reason, it is predicted that coal use will increase further on a global scale. Thus, it surpassed the growth rate of renewable energy in 2021 and became the leader in energy growth.

At the same time, in 1990, Harvard scientists found that the smallest particles in the air, called PM2.5, were linked to an increased risk of premature death. Later studies said that these particles increase the risk of developing lung and heart diseases, cancer and dementia. The main danger is that, entering the bloodstream, they facilitate the formation of blood clots, significantly increasing the likelihood of heart attack and stroke, including death. In total, approximately eight million people die annually from microparticles produced by burning fossil fuels.

Now, scientists from George Mason University and Texas State University (USA) have found that the impact of PM2.5 particles released into the atmosphere due to the activity of coal-fired power plants is twice as dangerous to life as the impact of these substances. from other sources. Two months of emissions from a coal-fired power plant near Atlanta. The video shows how wind affects the spread of air pollution.

PM2.5 – small particles of dust, ash, soot, as well as sulfates and nitrates in the air, the size of which varies from 0.001 to 2.5 micrometers.

Due to such small sizes, they enter the lungs when inhaled, but cannot be retained by biological barriers and pass into the bloodstream. They can accumulate in the body and cause health problems. For example, lung, cardiovascular and oncological diseases.

So far, American researchers have examined emissions data from 480 coal plants from 1999 to 2020. They then modeled the wind dispersion of sulfur dioxide (which is then converted to PM2.5) during the week following the release. Thus, it was possible to calculate the size of the area polluted by each power plant during the year. The model was then compared to medical records of the US population. The results are published in the journal Science.

Experts found that nearly 460,000 deaths were linked to PM2.5 emitted by coal burning. Most of these occurred between 1999 and 2007, when pollutant levels from coal-fired power plants were highest. A one microgram/cubic meter increase in annual mean PM from coal-fired plants was associated with a 1.12% increase in the risk of premature death, which was 2.1 times the risk of exposure to PM 2.5 emitted from other plants.

According to the authors, their research once again revealed that increasing coal use will harm human health. They called for switching to other energy sources as often as possible to reduce the negative impact of coal.

Although the new study’s data came from material taken from the United States, it is clear that coal’s weight in the eight million annual global deaths from microparticles is much greater than previously thought. Frankly, it’s measured over hundreds of thousands and millions of lives each year. This is especially dangerous considering that the amount of coal burned will increase in the near future.