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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Environment
Nina Lakhani climate justice reporter

US coal power plants killed at least 460,000 people in past 20 years – report

A bright yet hazy sky, with the sun peeking around a plume of white smoke rising from one of two tall smoke stacks, with low snowy fields in the foreground.
Smoke from a coal-fired power plant in Romeoville, Illinois, on 1 February 2019. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

Coal-fired power plants killed at least 460,000 Americans during the past two decades, causing twice as many premature deaths as previously thought, new research has found.

Cars, factories, fire smoke and electricity plants emit tiny toxic air pollutants known as fine particulate matter or PM2.5, which elevate the risk of an array of life-shortening medical conditions including asthma, heart disease, low birth weight and some cancers.

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