Emissions from six Maryland power plants, three of them owned by an Atlanta-based company, are responsible each year for about 700 premature deaths nationwide, according to a report released Wednesday by the Maryland Nurses Association. The association, which is supporting one of two competing clean-air proposals pending before lawmakers, announced the findings along with officials from several other health and environmental groups that are supporting the Healthy Air Act. Jonathan Levy, the Harvard University School of Public Health assistant professor who conducted the study, said he used previous research to estimate the health impact of the six plants based on 2004 emissions estimates and census data. In addition to the premature deaths, emissions from the plants can be linked each year to 30,000 additional asthma attacks, including 4,000 in Maryland, Levy found.
