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Study: Cutting carbon dioxide saves 3,500 U.S. lives a year

umbertino

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umbertino Grand Master

umbertino

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May 5 2015

 

 

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama Administration's hotly debated plan to reduce heat-trapping carbon dioxide from the nation's power plants will save about 3,500 lives a year by cutting back on other types of pollution as well, a new independent study concludes.

 

A study from Harvard and Syracuse University calculates the decline in heart attacks and lung disease when soot and smog are reduced -- an anticipated byproduct of the president's proposed power plant rule, which aims to fight global warming by limiting carbon dioxide emissions.

 

Past studies have found that between 20,000 and 30,000 Americans die each year because of health problems from power plant air pollution, study authors and outside experts say. The study was published Monday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Nature Climate Change.

 

The proposed EPA rule, which is not yet finalized, is complex and tailored to different states. It aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 30 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. Study authors said their research, while not hewing to the Obama plan exactly, is quite close and comparable. The study also finds about the same number of deaths prevented by reducing soot and smog that the administration claimed when the plan was rolled out more than a year ago.

 

Some in Congress have been trying to block the regulation from going into effect, calling the plan a job-killer and an example of government overreach.

 

The study finds that the rule would eliminate an average of 3,500 deaths a year -- a range of lives saved from 780 to 6,100 -- with more than 1,000 of the lives saved in just four states that get lots of pollution from coal power plants: Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas and Illinois. The new regulation would reduce hospitalizations by 1,000 a year and heart attacks by 220 a year, the study says.

 

Cleaning the air as part of reducing carbon dioxide has immediate and noticeable benefits, the authors said.

 

''There could be lives saved associated with the way we implement the policy,'' said study lead author Charles Driscoll, an environmental engineering professor at Syracuse. ''Why not kill two birds with one stone if you can?''

 

Lab studies on animals show how soot and smog harm the cardiovascular and respiratory systems and epidemiological studies link tens of thousands of deaths each year to soot and smog pollution, said study co-author Joel Schwartz, a Harvard environmental epidemiologist. The study's authors examined 2,417 power plants and used computer models to project and track their emissions.

 

The study was praised by outside academics, the Environmental Protection Agency and environmental advocacy groups. But officials in the energy industry called it costly and flawed.

 

''This is more than just an academic exercise to the tens of millions of Americans who depend on affordable, reliable electricity to power their homes and places of work every day,'' said Laura Sheehan, senior vice president for the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. ''For them, this is about their livelihoods. Coal provides nearly 40 percent of the nation's electricity and its use is becoming cleaner all the time. And while these academics are hypothesizing about unprovable consequences, what's known is that families are struggling to pay their monthly bills and companies are struggling to stay in business - and any increase in energy costs will unnecessarily burden them. ''

 

EPA, in a statement, said the study confirms their earlier research, which shows that for every dollar spent complying with the regulation, ''Americans will see up to $7 in health benefits.''

 

Three top science officials in the George W. Bush Administration who are now outside academics -- George Gray at George Washington University, John D. Graham at Indiana University and Howard Frumkin at the University of Washington -- praised the study to various degrees.

 

''This analysis is both sound and useful,'' Gray, former EPA science chief and now director of risk science and public health, wrote in an email. ''The cool thing is the question they ask: What public health effects might occur due to changes in air pollutants as we act to reduce greenhouse gas emissions?''

 

polution500x350.jpg

 

Photo:  In this 2012 file photo, smoke rises in this time exposure image from the stacks of the La Cygne Generating Station coal-fired power plant in La Cygne, Kan. Carbon dioxide pollution has increased steadily, by 60 percent, from 1992 to 2013. In 1992, the world spewed 24.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide, now it is 39.8 billion, according to scientists at the Global Carbon Project international consortium. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File)

 

 

 

http://www.peoplesworld.org/study-cutting-carbon-dioxide-saves-3-500-u-s-lives-a-year/

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new york kevin Experienced

new york kevin

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There is carbon deoxide in cow farts.  What is the government going to do...stick a cork in them all and watch them explode?

Bohica don't be utterly rediculious. :eyebrows:  The EPA under Obama and Hillarious if she gets elected will stick a meter in them and monitor the gas flow that way. :blush: Umbertino what good is it for the EPA to require our output of CO2 to go so dramatically below the historic levels they are at now if all the polution, including their CO2, drifts over here from China, India, Russia, and Vitenam. The EPA could require all machines in the US to emit zero CO2, but if world bodies do nothing about the polution from other nations that ride the air currents to the US all the effort will be for not.

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SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

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***///

 

It's all a bs distraction to get folks to start runnin' around screamin' "the sky is falling!, the sky is falling !" :eek: 

 

NYKEV is right.... we do more for the environment than all the other polluter nations on the planet combined !

 

And did we really need to have Japan's nuclear crap kill our Pacific Coast...? Did we...? :confused2: 

 

Let the screamin', tree-huggin', rainbow-paintin', unicorn-ridin' green freaks go over and have a talk with them --

 

and the damned ChiComs, and India, and Pakistan..... <_< 

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SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

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***///

 

SXSESS, don't worry about us old ladies who've run way off the rails... 

 

as long as we ain't takin' the rest of ya with us, it's all good !   :D

 

(unless ya wanna be on this here CrazyTrain... :eek:  ya could be on a worse trip... like a FEMA Train !)   :shrug:

 

 

And yes, SNOWGLOBE is funny.... very funny !  

 

If it weren't fer SNOW's carryin' on here some days, we'd a been the worse for it !  :)

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sxsess Newbie

sxsess

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Before I'm on a FEMA train I will be in the history books with many kills. I have no problem with death as long as I kill as many liberals as possible. I can only imagine this country in the next 5-10 years.

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sxsess Newbie

sxsess

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***///

 

We sure will, SNOW !

Tellin' ya true, SXSESS... Wouldn't hurt for ya ta' have us crazy 'ol bats on the line with ya !  :salute:  :salute:

 

 

.

I love you women. You have bigger balls then most men I know. I know most people think talk is cheap but the only thing that matters to me is my family members. After that my life means nothing.
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SgtFuryUSCZ Apprentice

SgtFuryUSCZ

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I love you women. You have bigger balls then most men I know. I know most people think talk is cheap but the only thing that matters to me is my family members. After that my life means nothing.

***///

 

Appreciate the compliment, Sir ! :tiphat:

Comes with havin' lived a long time, experienced much, seen even more.

 

We've stepped up so many times, we're 10 ft tall n' bullet proof now !  ;)

 

Knowin' folks like you still exist warms the heart !  :salute:

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