Environment
Coal Power Plants Are Killing Thousands in Europe: Report
A look at the health consequences of coal's rising popularity.
Lots of the world's attention has been focused recently on the startlingly high levels of smog in China. But things aren't too great in Europe, either, where the popularity of coal-fired power plants is endangering the lives of entire generations of people.
That's according to a report released late last week by the Health and Environment Alliance, a Brussels-based nonprofit, which indicates that coal pollution causes more than 18,200 premature deaths each year in Europe – or 23,300 deaths, if you add in Serbia, Croatia and Turkey. The economic costs of burning coal totals between €42.8 and €54.7 billion annually (up to $71 billion in dollars), equaling about 4 million lost working days every year.