Study estimates health impact of coal based power plants in India

Emissions from coal based power plants in India are having a catastrophic effect on morbidity and mortality, a recent study shows.1

The study—conducted jointly by Urban Emissions, the Conservation Action Trust, and Greenpeace India—assessed a database of emissions from 111 coal based, thermal power stations across India, having a cumulative generation capacity of 121 GW.2

The study report1 estimated that emissions from coal fired power plants led to 80 000 to 115 000 premature deaths in 2011-12. Two thirds of India’s electricity is produced by coal based power plants.

The emissions also caused 20.9 million cases of asthma attacks, 900 000 emergency room visits, and 160 million days of restricted activity, the report claimed. The associated financial costs of these health impacts could be as high as $3.3bn (£2.2bn; €2.6bn) to $4.6bn per year, it suggested.

The health impacts, estimated using concentration-response functions, varied greatly across the country, with three clusters (Delhi-Haryana, Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh-Jharkhand-Orissa, and West Bengal-Jharkhand-Bihar) showing high burdens of estimated premature mortality. Analysis showed that health impacts could be seen even at 50-100 km from the source.

Subu V Subramanian, professor of population health and geography at Harvard University, states: “This is a landmark report that probably for the first time quantifies the burden of disease and death that is attributable to particulate matter pollution from coal fired power plants in India. The findings clearly highlight the importance of principles of sustainable development to health as well as environmental and health equity.

“It is also very likely that the burden of adverse environmental exposures falls disproportionately on the poor and worse-off, and therefore the estimates presented in the report are probably under-estimates when it comes to the majority of the Indian population,” he suggests.

Indian emission standards for particulate matter lag behind countries such as China and Australia, and India has no prescribed emission standards for sulphur dioxides, nitrogen oxides, and mercury.

Furthermore, existing standards are for ambient air quality and not for individual plants, making it difficult to control pollution at the individual plant level. The report states: “Only after standards are set and regulations mandated at the plant level can we proceed to the next steps of monitoring and enforcing policy, so as to have reduced negative environment and health impacts due to coal fired power plants.”

With an installed generation capacity of approximately 210 GW, India is one of the world’s largest producers of electricity, and production is planned to increase in the coming years to meet the growing demands.