Doggett: A cure for cleaner air
by Lisa Doggett, April 2006
When we think of health threats, we physicians usually think of viruses, blocked arteries and bad habits such as smoking. But as the summer with its ozone action days draws closer — and the news spreads that six new dirty coal plants have been proposed for our state — we cannot ignore the major threat posed by coal burning power plants.
These plants emit fine particle pollution, toxic mercury and smog-forming nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2). Each of these substances has been linked to adverse health outcomes. In adopting new rules for existing and future coals plants, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has an obligation to the people of Texas to adequately address these health concerns.
At face value, the proposed rules look like they are intended to clean up our air, but unfortunately they are likely to have minimal impact and, in the case of mercury, lead to even greater pollution. As a physician, this is of grave concern to me and others in the medical community. If the proposed rules pass, TCEQ will have wasted an opportunity to improve our health, and it will demonstrate a blatant failure of our government to protect us.
The Environmental Protection Agency's Clean Air Mercury Rules would allow an increase in Texas mercury emissions from 9099 pounds in 2003 to 9314 pounds by 2010. In addition to adopting these rules, the TCEQ has recommended that Texas participate in national trading of mercury credits, which could create toxic hotspots of mercury pollution. Some states are enacting more stringent rules to protect the health of their citizens, and Texas should follow suit.
Mercury is poisonous and dangerous. When it is emitted from coal plants, it gets into the air, then into our waterways, is ingested by fish and makes its way up the food chain. Women who eat contaminated fish when pregnant unknowingly jeopardize the health and neurologic development of their future children. Young children who eat fish with high levels of mercury face similar risks. Even low levels of mercury exposure have been linked to delayed walking and fine motor function, speech difficulties, and memory problems.
The Texas Medical Association has joined Physicians for Social Responsibility and the American Academy of Pediatrics in calling on policymakers to recognize the hazardous nature of mercury and take action to reduce this threat. It is astounding that as we learn more about the danger of mercury, the TCEQ is considering rules to increase our exposure.
Unfortunately, the situation with the Clean Air Interstate Rule is not much better. This rule reduces NOx and SO2 by only 9 percent — a baby step in the right direction. Both of these substances contribute to fine particle pollution and NOx contributes to ozone formation. In a state with more than 1 million people with asthma, we need to carefully regulate these known triggers. In Central Texas, emergency rooms are crowded with both kids and adults with asthma and other heart and lung problems.
Recent reports indicate that in Texas 1,160 premature deaths and 33,987 asthma attacks per year are due to particle pollution. Nationally, there are more deaths from pollution than from drunken driving or murder. You don't have to be a doctor to know that brown haze is not good for your lungs.
The TCEQ itself has said that we need a 70 percent cut in power plant pollution to make our air safe to breath. The cost to our state, both in dollars and lives, is too great to settle for only a 9 percent reduction.
The rules before us benefit the owners of power companies, but they cause direct injury to you and me. People are dying now, even here in Austin, because of power plant pollution. We have the technology to fix this problem. What is lacking is the political will.
Austin Physicians for Social Responsibility urges the TCEQ to protect public health by adopting and enforcing a 90 percent mercury reduction at all coal burning power plants by 2010, with no trading allowed, and a 70 percent reduction in NOx and sulfur. Breathing is not optional. Cleaning up our air should not be optional, either.
Doggett is a family physician and the executive director of the Austin Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility.
