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Clean Air News
For Immediate Release:
05/14/2002
For More Information:
Rebecca Stanfield (312) 291-0696, ext. 213 New Report: 2,746,764 Children In Illinois Breathing Pollution From Dirty Power PlantsIllinois Ranks First In The Nation For Number Of Schools Located Within 30 Miles Of A Coal-Fired Power PlantDownload the Illinois Fact Sheet As the new home of Illinois PIRG's environmental work,
Environment Illinois can be contacted with any questions regarding this news release. A new study released today by the Illinois PIRG Education Fund titled Children at Risk: How Air Pollution from Power Plants Threatens the Health of America's Children finds that 2,746,764 children in Illinois live in the shadows of old, dirty coal-fired power plants. These children are exposed to pollutants that cause a host of health problems, from asthma attacks to neonatal death and slowed neurological development. Of these children living near power plants, 157,659 in Illinois suffer from pediatric asthma. Even worse, one study suggests that it may be unhealthy for children in some areas to participate in outdoor sports. "Right now, kids in Illinois are living near power plant smokestacks and breathing air loaded with hazardous pollution," said Brian Metcalf, Environmental Associate for the Illinois PIRG Education Fund. "Parents have good reason to be concerned, and they deserve to get the facts." "In Illinois, asthma is the leading cause of hospitalization for children under age 15 and is the leading cause of school absenteeism," stated Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs for the American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. "A comprehensive effort to reduce air pollution from the largest sources of pollution, older coal-fired power plants, is one sure way to keep our kids healthy," Urbaszewski continued. Over the past few years, numerous peer-reviewed studies have appeared in scientific journals clearly documenting how pollution from power plants has serious long-term health consequences for children. However, too often this information has not reached the general public, and when it did it was not in a form accessible to parents. Children at Risk, prepared by the Clean Air Task Force, provides parents up-to-date information about how pollution from power plants impacts their children. Children at Risk details the dangers of breathing power plant emissions and the children that are at risk, including how:
In Illinois, the report found that:
"Children can't learn if they can't breathe," stated Jennifer Johnson, an organizer with the Sierra Club. Johnson continued, "The Bush administration needs to enforce strong Clean Air laws for our children who represent America's future, and leave not one child behind breathing polluted air." Ashley Collins, Environmental Program Associate for Citizen Action/Illinois commented, "Children at Risk shows that our children's health is at stake if we fail to clean up these plants. We need to act now to protect our children and future generations." Dr. L. Bruce Hill, Senior Scientist at the Clean Air Task Force and author of the report, added, "With a plan moving through Congress for a cleaner energy future, now is the time for parents to better understand the risks of air pollution on their children—and the ultimate cost of delayed action." Unfortunately, rather than taking immediate steps to solve this health threat to our kids, the Bush administration has proposed a major rollback of the New Source Review provision of the Clean Air Act, which requires power plants, refineries and other industries to install state-of-the-art pollution controls when they make major, pollution-increasing plant modifications. Each year this program has kept more than a million tons of air pollution out of our skies. |