Fossil fuel burning power plants emit high levels of airborne pollutants associated with respiratory infections, chronic respiratory illness and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease. Power plants also emit low levels of uranium, thorium, and other radioactive elements as well as mercury, and other heavy metals. These toxic pollutants have been associated with many serious health effects including cognitive impairment, mental retardation, autism and blindness. This paper examines housing prices and demographic characteristics in neighborhoods in the United States where power plants were sited during the 1990s, comparing before and after the plants were opened using household-level data from restricted Census microdata for 1990 and 2000 in order to measure the value of these health risks and to assess their distribution across local populations. The restricted Census microdata will be accessed at the Michigan Census Research Data Center and the project has already been reviewed and approved by the Census Bureau Project Review Committee. The study is relevant for evaluating a wide range of environmental and health policies that affect when, where, and how power plants are sited as well as what steps should be taken to mitigate the associated health impacts.
Fossil fuel burning power plants emit high levels of airborne pollutants associated with respiratory infections, chronic respiratory illness and aggravation of existing cardiovascular disease. This paper examines housing prices and demographic characteristics in neighborhoods where power plants were sited during the 1990s to measure the value of these health risks and to assess their distribution across local populations. The study is relevant for evaluating a wide range of environmental and health policies that affect when, where, and how power plants are sited as well as what steps should be taken to mitigate the associated health impacts.
