Maryland Air Pollution Called Killer

Air pollution from Maryland’s six largest coal-fired power plants causes an estimated 700 premature deaths a year, a study says.

Additionally, the pollution brings on about 30,000 asthma attacks annually, according to the study by Harvard School of Public Health scientist Jonathan Levy.

The report is part of a campaign with environmental groups to pass stronger air pollution laws in Maryland, the Baltimore Sun said.

Levy, an assistant professor of environmental health at Harvard, said that air pollution in Maryland had been improving from 1999 to 2003, but got worse in 2004 and 2005.

In Maryland, Levy said, about 100 people a year die because of this power plant pollution, many from heart attacks, with the other 600 deaths annually in downwind states including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York.