I once had a friend asked which of two properties they should buy due to one being near high voltage lines. My answer was simple, I would buy the o NOXandSO2emissions contribute to the formation of ground-level ozone and fine PM, which can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular problems, and exposure to mercury can increase the possibility ofhealthissues ranging from cancer to immune system damage. S For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com. The type of nearest power plant was also identified by fuel type. Uranium fuel, nuclear reactors, generation, spent fuel. WebDifferent countries have a different regulation regarding the measurements of where to reside from the station. JI Therefore, this discrepancy is likely to bias our results toward the null. Abbreviations: LBW, low birth weight; PTD, preterm delivery; SD, standard deviation; VPTD, very preterm delivery. Wang A recent study by the Union of Concerned Scientists found that natural gas power plants in California will start and stop much more frequently in the future, and this increase in natural gas plant start-ups may increase NOx emissions. H In his role, he leads research and advocacy efforts in California and other Western states to advance the transition to a less polluting and less carbon-intensive energy system. We wish to thank the Florida Department of Health for supplying the data. Saurel-Cubizolles 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. Forsberg 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. The failure of a single dam on the Ru River in China caused an estimated 171,000 deaths. Lamson T Natural gas is a relatively clean burning fossil fuel. Delfino In New York, power-sector emissions et al. Data analyses were performed by using SAS, version 9.3, software (SAS Institute, Inc., Cary, North Carolina). A For each demographic, the percentages of these communities within three miles of a power plant greater than and less than the national averages are displayed. Natural gas transmission pipelines are wide-diameter pipelines and are often the long-distance portion of natural gas pipeline systems that connect gathering systems in producing areas, natural gas processing plants, and other receipt points to the main consumer service areas. A three-mile radius isconsistent with environmental justice literature and studies, including theEJ Screening Reportfor the Clean Power Plan. The map displays all fossil fuel-fired power plants that supply electricity to the grid. Oil and gas production poses all those risks. J Would it be safe to live on land that once belonged to a nuclear power plant if that plant had no accidents? If everything had been done properly t Nathanson Yu When considering whether a property is eligible for an FHA-insured loan, HUD requires that "a site be rejected if the property being appraised is subject to hazards, environmental contaminants, noxious odors, offensive sights or excessive noises to the point of endangering the physical improvements or affecting the livability of the property, its marketability or the health and safety of its occupants." et al. b Nuclear plants are categorized differently because there are no births with 2 or more nuclear plants within 20 km. TH C EPA is committed to Environmental Justice (EJ) - the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people. We used logistic regression models to investigate the association between proximity to a power plant and the adverse birth outcomes. You can seethe percentages by hovering your cursor over the colored bars. Visintainer N You can explore the distribution of all plants for a particular demographic by selecting the label or bar for the demographic. The photo to the right shows gas venting out of an open pipe shortly before the explosion on February 7th. PC This association is also consistent with our data that showed, on average, that women close to nuclear plants and other plants were exposed to lower levels of PM2.5. Zhu Association Between Number of Plants Within 20 km, by Fuel Type, and Adverse Birth Outcomes in Florida From 2004 to 2005. a Adjusted for maternal age, maternal race, maternal education, marital status, census block group income, and urban neighborhood. L (* edit). D Reserves, production, prices, employment and productivity, distribution, stocks, imports and exports. Ha 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. Oudin Figure2A and 2B illustrate PM2.5 exposure by types of power plants. Distance from the nearest power plants was measured in kilometers. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide, This PDF is available to Subscribers Only. KO We obtained the odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the increase in odds of having adverse birth outcomes for each 5 km closer to any power plant. Bronson Exploration and reserves, storage, imports and exports, production, prices, sales. An official website of the United States government. et al. Burning fossil fuels to produce electricity creates emissions of sulfur dioxide (SO2), nitrogen oxides (NOX), particulate matter (PM), carbon dioxide (CO2),mercury (Hg) and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), and other pollutants. Webselection of safety distance can prevent optimum utilisation of available space. In addition, when exposure was changed to number of plants within 20 km, coal plants had the highest association with all adverse birth outcomes. K Regional energy information including dashboards, maps, data, and analyses. Brumberg J There were 150 active nonrenewable power plants with different fuel types including 17 coal plants, 66 gas plants, 3 nuclear plants, 28 oil plants, 29 solid waste plants, and 7 plants with other types of fuel (e.g., coke, etc.). 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. Furthermore, we were not able to account for pollutants from other sources such as traffic and industrial emission. More information about the Power Plant Retirements map can be foundhere. We chose first trimester because 1) first trimester exposure to PM2.5 has a strong association with adverse birth outcomes (26), and 2) it ensures that the time over which PM2.5 is averaged is similar for cases and controls. As paradoxical as it may sound, California may continue to achieve its global warming emissions reduction goals and increase air pollution from natural gas power plants at the same time. et al. Which states consume and produce the most natural gas. And since half of Californias natural gas power plants are concentrated in some of the most socioeconomically and environmentally disadvantaged communities in the state, these emissions harm communities that are already overburdened with pollution. The addresses we geocoded to determine proximity to power plants were residential addresses at birth. Dong CC Figure1 shows a map of the spatial distribution of active power plants and the average annual PM2.5 concentrations in Florida during 20032005. Given that PM2.5 is a measurable air pollutant and a major component of power plant emissions (21), as well as its consistent associations with adverse birth outcomes (22, 23), PM2.5 can serve as a good indicator for air pollution from power plants. Queisser-Luft Some of the highest-polluting natural gas power plants emit over 100 tons of NOx per year, which is roughly equivalent to the NOx emissions from traveling 11 million The 50 mile safe distance that the U.S. government recommended to Americans was shown on the map. Union of Concerned Scientists JL Lee . Some places in the country, however, still have setbacks for homes that are less then 300 feet. we equip you to harness the power of disruptive innovation, at work and at home. MS However, we have also used a fully adjusted model with all covariates in our directed acyclic graph. Official websites use .gov Additional layers which can be toggled on/off include power plant emissions, area demographics, and tribal areas. Zou Director of Energy Research & Analysis, Guillermo Pereira Su Sandie Ha, Hui Hu, Jeffrey Roth, Haidong Kan, Xiaohui Xu, Associations Between Residential Proximity to Power Plants and Adverse Birth Outcomes, American Journal of Epidemiology, Volume 182, Issue 3, 1 August 2015, Pages 215224, https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwv042. For example, in Ohio the setback from a homeis 100 feetfrom awell - not even from the boundary of a wellpad - and only 75 feet for a directional well. Vijayaraghavan Updated January 2012. et al. But HUD goes further and states that "Operating and abandoned oil and gas wells pose potentialhazards to housing, including potential fire, explosion,spray and other pollution.No existing dwelling may be located closer than 300 feet from an active or planned drilling site. Lee CA They produce toxic and radioactive waste and spew it into the air, poisoning the environment, sickening people, and causing climate change. Oh wait In the graph below, the low-income(verticalaxis) and the people of color(horizontal axis) are plotted for the communitiesaround each U.S. fossil fuel-fired power plant. We use cookies to improve your experience. Since then, researchers have further studied this association, including in the California Power Line Study, a 2016 study in the British Journal of Cancer. 2023 ZDNET, A Red Ventures company. Because of accumulating evidence of a negative relationship between power plants and human health, a few studies have assessed the association between proximity to nuclear power plants and adverse birth outcomes, but no association was found (1719). Workers might also use air, steam, nitrogen, or water *in lieu of natural gas. F More information about the Power Plants and Neighboring Communities Mapping Tool can be foundhere. 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). ML T . The first trimester was defined as the first 13 weeks of gestation. Peacock with both a low-income percentage and people of color percentage greater than the national averages. JD Senior Energy Analyst, James Gignac To explore the state-level data, click on a state tosee the number of plants located in communities above the80thpercentile for each of the six key demographics and then click on a demographic to see the distribution of plants across the entire range of percentiles. 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). The following map identifies thelocations of power plants and highlights the key demographics of people living within threemiles of those plants. Lanki Anderson Our study found evidence of increasing odds of adverse birth outcomes among infants born to pregnant women living closer to power plants. This method assumes that pregnant women stayed at those same addresses throughout their pregnancy. HS Abbreviations: aOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; LBW, low birth weight; PTD, preterm delivery; VPTD, very preterm delivery. its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends. Petroeschevsky Particulate matter and ozone cause the extensive list of adverse health outcomes you hear at the end of a prescription drug commercial shortness of breath, heart attacks, premature death; the list goes on. Y BE Moshammer It is an environmental justice screening and mapping tool that utilizes standarddata to highlight places that may have higher environmental burdens and vulnerable populations. These associations remained consistent for PTD and VPTD when exposures were categorized (Table2). The following sections are presented below: There are over 3,400 fossil fuel-fired power plants in the United States. Cons. Roussos-Ross In addition, we also overlaid geocoded active power plants and the 12 12 km grids to determine the daily PM2.5 concentrations near the power plants during the study period. D You may have heard that natural gas is clean. Compared to coal, natural gas produces less global warming emissions and air pollution. HS D Hu MJ Bell Ha The results remained consistent when exposure was categorized (Table3). When stratified for different types of power plants, the results remained generally consistent. S Many U.S. power plants produce CO 2 emissions. Because there was evidence of spatial clustering of power plants, distance from power plants may not be the best measure of exposure. A Does EIA have maps or information on the location of natural gas and oil pipelines? RD EIA's free and open data available as API, Excel add-in, bulk files, and widgets. Thanks to the Northeast Ohio Gas Accountability Project (NEOGAP) for this information. 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