Study: Air pollution kills 41 in Delaware each year

Forty-one Delawareans die each year on average as a result of air pollution, a report released last week by the NewYork University Marron Institute estimates.

The data is part of a larger report by the organization that estimates there are 9,320 deaths each year in U.S. metropolitan areas as a result of air pollution concentrations.

The estimates are based on pollution levels that exceed standards recommended by the American Thoracic Society, a New York-based nonprofit focused on pulmonary diseases, critical illnesses and sleep-related breathing disorders.

According to the first Health of the Air report, higher-than-recommended concentrations of two major air pollutants – ambient ozone and fine particulate matter – also caused 21,400 major health problems across the county.

Air pollution kills about 30 people a year in the Wilmington area and seriously sickens another 80, the study suggests.

Kevin Cromar, who authored the report, said it is meant to be a tool to help communities understand issues being faced.

"We hope that our report, that comes out each year, will be able to let people track their progress in terms of monitoring their quality," said Cromar, adding the study includes an online tool that allows users to view the number of deaths and impacted days for any given metropolitan area.

Much of the current fine particulate pollution in Delaware comes from out-of-state industries, such as coal power plants as far away as Indiana. If federal standards are surpassed four times during a three-year period, federal regulators could mandate emissions cuts for all businesses.

"We didn't do a lot of editorializing in the report, partly because a location like Delaware there isn't much that you can do by yourself," Cromar said. "But that doesn't mean there aren't health impacts that are occurring because of the problem."

Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control Secretary David Small said Delaware needs help from outside the state.

"When it comes to ozone, over 90 percent of the pollutants that come into Delaware that cause ozone come from upwind states," Small said. "That is one of the primary reasons that we've taken the recent actions that we have seeking assistance from [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] and targeting large coal-fired power plants."

State officials last month filed a pair of petitions with the federal court system in the hopes of forcing other states to reduce air pollution that makes its way into Delaware. And officials filed a petition this week asking federal regulators to take action against a West Virginia coal-fired power station they say is adding to Delaware’s air pollution.

Small said he could not vouch for the numbers presented in the study, but said he is not surprised that high ozone levels could have a high impact level, including mortality.

"It is a contributing factor and as you know when we are projecting high ozone days we try to warn folks that are susceptible and suggest that they restrict their activities," he said. "We know that there are health impacts from poor air quality.

"We're not necessarily equipped or in the business to quantify those impacts. That's what this study does."

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When looking at the entire state, Cromar's report found that 41 Delawareans die each year on average as a results of air pollution making it the sixth highest death rate in the country. At least three state did not have data.

The study showed how Delaware is surrounded by states with serious problems, such as Pennsylvania, which the study said was one of the top four states with the highest health impacts.

California, with the highest, is responsible for approximately 37 percent of the total estimated health impacts, the report said. The next highest were Pennsylvania, Texas and Ohio, which together were responsible for about 20 percent of the total estimated health impacts.

Cromar said that even modest improvements in air quality can lead to public health benefits.

"It's not always about finding the greatest contributor of pollution in an area," Cromar said. "Sometimes it's about finding the source where there is a policy that the public can get behind."

For example, Cromar said that in New York, the institute worked to pass regulations to reduced the sulfur content in heating oil that was used in buildings. That small policy, Cromar said, lead to the cleanest winter-time air quality seen in New York in 50 years.

"Was it the largest source of pollution in the city? No," he said. "But by doing something about it, it actually had a measurable effect in terms of air quality and it actually led to reduced health burdens in the city."

Stephanie Herron, Delaware Sierra Club volunteer and outreach coordinator, had not seen the study, but welcomed anything that helped educate people about air quality and could help try to reduce pollutants.

"People can make a huge impact on local air quality just from their individual actions," she said, adding that mowing the lawn in the middle of the day, driving or getting gas in the hottest part of the day affect air quality. "All these things have a huge impact when you total them up."

The Sierra Club on Thursday released new polling results that found that across the region and political spectrum people overwhelming support acting on air pollution and climate change by strengthening the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cooperative effort among nine states to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Contact Esteban Parra at (302) 324-2299, eparra@delawareonline.com or Twitter @eparra3.