Conversely, states with large populations but without coal-fired plants fared much better. For example,California, which has the nation's largest population and some of its worst air quality, has veryfew coal or oil-fired power plants. Abt Associates estimates that only 259 deaths are attributable topower plant pollution in California and the state ranked almost last in per capita impact (1.4 deaths per100,000 adults). Kentucky, the state with the highest reliance on coal for production of electricityranked first in related per capita mortality at more than 44 deaths per 100,000 adults, over 30 timeshigher than California's per capita mortality rate.Note - For complete tables, see Appendix.
Similarly,metropolitan areas with large populations near coal-fired power plants feel their impacts most acutely.In large metropolitan areas, many hundreds of lives are shortened each year.
However, much smaller metropolitan areas in and around "coal country" suffer the greatest per capitaimpacts, such as Chattanooga, Tennessee; Gadsden, Alabama; Terre Haute, Indiana; Wheeling, West Virginia;and Owensboro, Kentucky. Their death rates are much higher, for example, than that of New York City.Compare Chattanooga at 49.3 deaths per 100,000 adults with New York at 19.3 per 100,000. (You can view a more complete list of metropolitan areas in "The Particulate-Related Health Benefits of Reducing Power Plant Emissions", the source report prepared by Abt Associates. Note: The Abt report is in PDF format.)
In fact,because these health effects estimates include only the effects from airborne fine particles, theysignificantly understate the total adverse impact on public health from power plants. Excluded from theseestimates are the health effects from other power plant pollutants, such as air emissions that result inozone smog, air toxics, global warming, and the impacts from the consumption of fish contaminated bypower plant mercury emissions.