Respiratory related ER visits decreased 20% after coal-processing plant closure, study finds

A new study by NYU Langone Health researchers found that the shutdown of a significant fossil fuel pollution source near Pittsburgh, PA, resulted in immediate improvements in respiratory health. The study is available online in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Assessing data from nearby local and federal air quality monitors, the researchers tracked the air pollution health effects on residents near the Shenango plant before and after its closure in 2016.

Results showed that within the first few weeks after the plant’s closure in January 2016, respiratory-related emergency visits decreased by about 20 percent. In the first month of the closure, pediatric asthma visits declined by 41 percent, and continued to fall by 4 percent each month through the end of the study period.

These findings indicate that reductions in fossil-fuel-related air pollution are linked to both short and long-term lung health benefits, the researchers say.

“The adverse reductions in respiratory health effects were much greater than expected, based on past studies of general air pollution in the U.S., indicating that emissions from such fossil fuel-related sources are especially toxic,” said study senior author George Thurston, ScD.

Dr. Thurston is a professor in the Departments of Medicine and Population Health at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine and a member of the American Thoracic Society.

“This study provides rare, in-the-field evidence that the closure of a major industrial pollution source can lead to immediate and lasting improvements in the lung health of those who live nearby,” added the article’s first author, Wuyue Yu, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow at NYU Grossman School of Medicine.

“By tracking health outcomes before and after the coke plant closure, we were able to isolate the effects of reduced air pollution and observe that cleaner air translates into fewer respiratory emergency visits and hospitalizations.”