Somehow I missed the importance of this report in Euronews Green when it came out earlier this month, but Dr Gary Fuller in yesterday's Guardian underscores its message.
The closure of a large coal plant in the US has been linked to a near-instant drop in heart attacks and strokes among local people.
Shenango Coke Works facility in Pittsburgh closed in January 2016 after incurring millions of dollars in government fines for air and water pollution.
Years of community pressure helped bring its long reign to an end - and locals were quickly rewarded in health gains, according to a new study by researchers at New York University (NYU) Grossman School of Medicine.
"Our research provides compelling scientific evidence that the closure of this coal-processing coke plant significantly eliminated fossil fuel-related air pollution emissions that improved the air quality and cardiovascular health of nearby residents," says lead investigator Wuyue Yu.
Average weekly visits to the local emergency departments for problems decreased by 42 per cent immediately after the shutdown, analyses of state health records show.
The study did not demonstrate a cause-and-effect link between any one individual’s health and the plant’s closure, exactly. But the results of the “natural experiment” - published in the journal Environmental Health Research - show a strong overall statistical association between the two.
One would expect health improvement (though probably not as dramatic as that in Ptttsburgh) in the area around Tata's works in the county borough if they were able to switch to a steel-making process not based on coal. The government should back initiatives such as that of the Green Hydrogen Alliance.
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