Knoxville ranks 12th in pollution deaths

Knoxville ranks 12th in pollution deaths
Thursday, October 19, 2000
By Thomas Fraser
of The Daily Times Staff

Knoxville ranks 12th in the nation in the number of deaths directly attributable to particulate pollution, according to a study released Tuesday by the Tennessee Clean Air Task Force and Clear the Air, the National Campaign against Dirty Power.

Chattanooga ranks second, according to the analysis, and Tennessee as a whole ranked fourth in the nation in terms of deaths related to the discharge of fine airborne particulates from coal-fired power plants.

The study, which was performed by Abt Associates with methodology approved by the Environmental Protection Agency and peer-reviewed by a professor in the Harvard School of Public Health, indicates that particulate pollution may be more harmful to human health than ozone, another fossil fuel by-product that has received much local and national attention due to its impacts in the air quality of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

The Tri-Cities and Chattanooga actually had more unhealthy air than Knoxville, according to the study. Knoxville has an annual death rate due to particulate pollution of 44.5 per 100,000 people; Chattanooga and the Tri-Cities saw death rates of 49.3 and 48, respectively.

"Sulfur dioxide rates from the Tennessee Valley Authority's old coal plants remains a serious problem," said Stephen Smith, executive director of the Knoxville-based Southern Alliance for Clean Energy. SACE and the Knoxville-based Foundation for Global Sustainability are member organizations of the Tennessee Clean Air Task Force, which includes the American Lung Association of Tennessee, the League of Women Voters of Tennessee and the Sierra Club of Tennessee.

Sulfur dioxide emissions from TVA's 11 power plants are a main contributor to the problem, though automobile emissions also share the blame, Smith said.