Toll from Coal: Impacts on Chicago

On September 9, 2010, the Clean Air Task Force released an updated Toll from Coal report detailing the health and environmental impacts of coal-fired power plants. This data is broken down by region, state, metropolitan area and power plant.

The health impacts are clear: power plants cause an average of 347 deaths, 264 hospital admissions and 584 heart attacks per year in metropolitan Chicago alone. These harms are largely preventable if power plants use modern pollution controls on their plants.

With the release of this new data, a consortium of Chicago public health and environmental groups – Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, Sierra Club, National Resources Defense Council and Environmental Law and Policy Center – has announced legal action against Stateline Generating Station near Chicago's South Side to limit the black smoke now billowing from that plant on a regular basis. 

Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Policy for RHAMC, is available for interview on the health impacts of power plants as well as the legal action against Stateline. To contact Brian:
Email Brian
(312) 628-0245

More information

Quick facts on breakdown of Chicagoland health impacts
RHAMC press release