After adjustment for potential confounders, living closer to any power plant increased the odds of all adverse birth outcomes compared with living farther away. Natural gas is burned to generate heat, electricity, and hot water. To describe prenatal exposures to PM2.5, we estimated average daily residential exposures to PM2.5 during pregnancy for each birth using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network. SC More information about the Power Plants and Neighboring Communities Mapping Tool can be foundhere. Demand for natural gas fluctuates daily and seasonally, but production and pipeline imports are relatively constant in the short term. Lee The power sector has significantly reduced many of these pollutants over the past two decades, but important health and environmental concerns persist. Roberts Some places in the country, however, still have setbacks for homes that are less then 300 feet. This generating capacity may likely be replaced by natural gas-fired power plants and renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. See the health effects of ozoneand particulate matter pollution. Nearest distance to a power plant showed significant and negative regression coefficients with four neurobehavioral symptoms: affective problems, anxiety problems, O'Brien Y Chen Accessed March 8, 2014, Combining different sources of particulate data using Bayesian space-time modeling, First trimester exposure to ambient air pollution, pregnancy complications and adverse birth outcomes in Allegheny County, PA, Electric power annual: emission from energy consumption at conventional power plants and combined-heat-and-power plants 20022012, Published December 12, 2013. Mark Specht is the Western States Energy Manager/Senior Analyst for the Climate & Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. G P Therefore, this discrepancy is likely to bias our results toward the null. For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription. 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. Siffel Shi 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). Figure1 shows a map of the spatial distribution of active power plants and the average annual PM2.5 concentrations in Florida during 20032005. M Strmgren Moreover, there is recent evidence suggesting that harmful emissions from power plants may be increasing (16). Furthermore, among the case groups, the percentages of women who had lower education, were black, lived in neighborhoods with lower income, were unmarried, had no prenatal care, smoked, or drank alcohol during pregnancy were higher compared with those in the control group (Table1). Some power plants also Peng How Much Land Would it Require to Get Most of Our Electricity from Wind and Solar? The standard 300 mm safety distance used to place natural gas pipe away from water pipeline facilities needs to be reviewed to consider accidental damage and provide safety cushion to the natural gas pipe. et al. Some layersare not visible until the map is zoomed in. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Some women may spend most of their time outside their residential home; therefore, their exposure may be different from that estimated. Cifuentes 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). These keydemographicsand information about nearby power plants may help identify a community's potential vulnerability to environmental concerns. 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. 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. R Distance from the nearest power plants was measured in kilometers. Graphs below summarize the key demographics ofcommunities within three miles ofpower plants. 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. Vijayaraghavan et al. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. C Displays grown and controlled oxide of nitrogen projected emissions for 2019, excluding emissions from ocean-going vessels further than three nautical miles from the coast. Four people died last year during a gas blow at a ConAgra Slim Jim factory in North Carolina. This practice, although The final reason to be concerned about pollution from natural gas power plants is that it may get worse in the coming years. I 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. You can explore the distribution of all plants for a particular demographic by selecting the label or bar for the demographic. Natural gas storage during periods of low demand helps to ensure that enough natural gas is available during periods of high demand. The Natural Resources Defense Council works to safeguard the earth - its people, Can living near a nuclear power plant cause cancer? In short, NOx is bad news for human health. It is possible that socioeconomic status confounded the association that we observed in this study. EH The study also found that women living near 1 or more power plants located within a 20 km radius from their residence had higher odds of adverse birth outcomes. Holland However, we have also used a fully adjusted model with all covariates in our directed acyclic graph. Rabczenko RD Underground Natural Gas Storage by Storage Type, The Basics of Underground Natural Gas Storage, Natural Gas Processing: The Crucial Link Between Natural Gas Production and Its Transportation to Market. Spengler The following are the required setbacks to minimize exposure at different distances: 100 feet for 50 to 133kV transmission line 150 feet for 220 to 230kV transmission line 350 feet for 500 to 550kV transmission line 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 We also compared the odds for different buffer sizes of <5, 59.9, 1019.9, and 20 km from a power plant. Recurring messages. HR Now, I know that 1% does not sound like very much, but give me a moment to explain why this is still significant. with both a low-income percentage and people of color percentage greater than the national averages. TH For the layout of plant, prescriptive distances between equipment items are generally used, according to a tabular matrix JM These pollutants are known to contribute to adverse health outcomes, including the development of heart or lung diseases, such as asthma and bronchitis, increased susceptibility to respiratory and cardiac symptoms, greater numbers of emergency room visits and hospital admissions, and premature deaths. To make long-term gains against infection inequity, infectious disease epidemiology needs to develop a more sociological imagination. But coal is just about the dirtiest way to produce electricity, so almost anything will seem cleaner in comparison. Wellhead natural gas may contain contaminants and hydrocarbon gas liquids (HGLs) that must be removed before the natural gas can be safely delivered to the high Tsai Abbreviations: aOR, adjusted odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; LBW, low birth weight; PTD, preterm delivery; VPTD, very preterm delivery. Bell AE J Seen here in photos before and after the accident, the 620-megawatt Kleen Energy plant had been slated to open this summer. However, emissions from natural gas power plants are only a fraction of the emissions from stationary sources, so NOx emissions from natural gas power plants end up being roughly 1% of total NOx emissions in California. When you sign up you'll become a member of NRDC's Activist Network. Given that power plants are major sources of particulate matter, the present results are consistent with those of our recent study, which found that prenatal PM2.5 exposure was positively associated with LBW, PTD, and VPTD (23). S Eshoul Reserves, production, prices, employment and productivity, distribution, stocks, imports and exports. Uranium fuel, nuclear reactors, generation, spent fuel. 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 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). T Low-income populations generally have been found to have a higher prevalence of pre-existing diseases, limited access to medical treatment, and increased nutritional deficiencies, which can increase this populations susceptibility to pollution-related effects. 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.). To access this combined power plants and neighboring communities data in theEJSCREEN mapping tool, from the mapping tool menu: More information can also be found on the Frequent Questions about Power Plants and Neighboring Communitiespage and in the Power Plants and Neighboring Communities Webinar. (617) 547-5552. We used logistic regression models to investigate the association between proximity to a power plant and the adverse birth outcomes. Lets make sure that does not happen. Finally, the Hierarchical Bayesian Prediction Model data that we used to describe PM2.5 exposures were available at only 12 12 km resolution. After examining other proximity cutpoints, we chose these categories because they showed the best discrimination in the unadjusted analyses. It furthers the University's objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide, This PDF is available to Subscribers Only. We also analyzed our exposure as a continuous variable and assumed that the association between proximity and the odds of adverse birth outcomes is linear on the logarithmic scale. We also categorized the proximity to power Natural gas power accounts for about 20 percent of the nation's electricity. The type of nearest power plant was also identified by fuel type. Director of Energy Research & Analysis, Guillermo Pereira The first trimester was defined as the first 13 weeks of gestation. Some places in the country, however, still have setbacks for homes that are less then 300 feet. 4.5 shows the two schemes considered by the authors. Geer The photo to the right shows gas venting out of an open pipe shortly before the explosion on February 7th. The electric power sector is a large source of U.S. CO 2 emissions. 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