The document, which also bore the names of partners the Canadian Association of Physician for the Environment (CAPE), the Alberta and NWT Lung Association and the Asthma Society of Canada, said the health impact cost associated with burning coal for electricity in the Canadian province was almost $C300 million ($US295 million) annually.
According to the groups’ research, coal plants – which they say were a major source of toxic air contaminants, including mercury, nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter – contributed to more than 4000 asthma episodes every year, as well as 700 emergency visits for respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses and 80 hospital admissions.
Additionally, Pembina said, chronic exposures resulted in nearly 100 premature deaths in Alberta.
“Doctors agree that coal is a health hazard from start to finish,” CAPE representative Farrah Khan said.
Report author Tim Weis added that the cost of health impacts for the province’s residents were a subsidy for generators, because utilities did not have to pay for them.
“In essence, it's a health subsidy that's being picked up by the people of Alberta,” he said.
Alberta burns more coal than the rest of Canada combined, the report revealed, or about two-thirds of the electricity sold on Alberta’s market.
According to the analysis, climate change impacted from coal-fired power ranged from $1.1-4.5 billion annually.
“Alberta has no shortage of viable renewable and low-carbon alternatives,” Weis said.
“Currently these cleaner options are not competing on a level playing field because our market does not make polluters pay for the health and environmental costs.”
Pembina officials said current federal greenhouse gas regulations would eventually phase out coal plants.
However, that is not, they say, until they have operated unmitigated for up to a half century.
As a result, the groups have urged Alberta to adopt a provincial renewable energy policy and more rapidly phase out existing coal plants.
Weis told the Calgary Heraldthat he had not done similar calculations for other provinces but said that coal-fired power impacts would nearly certainly be higher in Alberta than elsewhere in Canada.
“We burn more coal than anyone else," he said.
