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Asthma & Cancers?

There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." 
-Henry David Thoreau

According to the Clean Air Task Force, 260,136 children live within a 30-mile radius of a coal-fired power plant in Mississippi. Of these, 14,468 suffer from asthma.

High smog areas contribute to or cause asthma in over 9 million children.  Of these, almost 5,000 will die. (Washington Post 2/1/02)

According to the American Cancer Society's statistics, more than one in three women and nearly one in two men will face the diagnosis of cancer at some time in their lives.

Since the 1980's, breast cancer has claimed more American lives than the Vietnam and Korean wars, World War I, and World War II combined. (Toxic Links Coalition, 3/20/02)

In the year 2000, Dupont Chemical Corporation in Pass Christian reported emissions of nearly 15 MILLION POUNDS of toxic pollutants to the Environmental Protection Agency.

During that same year, Mississippi Power in Gulfport reported emissions of over 10 MILLION POUNDS of toxins.

In its October 2000 report, Abt Associates used peer-review, state-of-the-art research to find that over 30,000 deaths each year are attributed to fine particle pollution from U.S. power plants.  Just as disheartening is the 80,000 to 120,000 asthma attacks which could be avoided simply by enforcing the provisions and requiring the plants to meet modern standards. Our politicians justified going to war over fewer casualties.

Corporations cry “poor!”  Fortune Magazine reported Southern Company’s 2003 earnings at $1.47 billion in 2003, up from $1.32 billion in 2002.  DuPont’s earnings topped projections in 2003 as 4th quarter income was up 82% from the prior year to $636 million. Impressive?  Not when one considers the cost to the health of our community along the Gulf Coast, an area economically and educationally advantaged and yet has the highest pollution (and cancer) rates in the state.