Last year, researchers at New York University published a surprising conclusion. The 2016 closure of the Shenango Coke Plant, a coal-fueled manufacturing facility outside Pittsburgh, was “associated with an almost instantaneous decline in local cardiac-related emergency department visits and hospitalizations.” Cardiovascular disease in the surrounding area”. Coke is a derivative of coal used to make steel, and the study provided compelling evidence of its dangers to nearby residents.
A new report aims to quantify the costs and public health damage that still-reliant coal-based steelmaking is causing in parts of Pennsylvania and across the country.
The report found that air pollution-related cancer rates were 12% higher than the national cancer rate near these steel mills, and 26% higher for residents living near coke plants. The researchers used modeling to link the increase in asthma symptoms to toxic byproducts such as sulfur dioxide and lead emitted by coal-based steel plants.
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Based on data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Emissions Inventory, the report found that this sector of the steel industry causes between $6.9 billion and $13.2 billion in health impacts, including premature deaths and emergency room visits, with an estimated 1 billion It concluded that it caused an economic impact of $37 million. Absenteeism and other knock-on effects result in losses every year. In the United States and abroad, coal-based steelmaking also contributes significantly to climate change, emitting 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
Coal was once the primary fuel source for the U.S. steel industry, but today there are only seven coal-based steel mills and 10 coke plants in the United States. Facilities are located throughout the Midwest and Appalachia. The nation’s largest coke plant, the 123-year-old Clairton Coke Plant, is located in Pennsylvania. Most of the steel currently made in America is made in electric furnaces from recycled scrap steel, a process that is less polluting than older methods of making new steel.
Kevin Dempsey, president and CEO of the American Steel and Iron Institute, a trade group for the steel industry, said in a statement that U.S. steel companies have a “strong commitment to the communities in which they operate. “He is a dedicated environmental steward with a strong sense of responsibility.”
“Our industry is recognized as the steel industry with the lowest carbon and other emissions in the world,” he said.
Hilary Lewis, director of steel at Industrious Lab, a nonprofit organization that focused on decarbonizing heavy industry and produced the report, said she was surprised by the large impact of so few facilities. “There really isn’t that much left,” she said.
This reduced footprint is part of our challenge to raise awareness about the enormous impact of just 17 plant species. Even in former steel towns where old factories have closed, people don’t know that coal is still used to make steel in the United States. “There hasn’t been much innovation in the way steel is made, it’s still a coal-based process with big stacks, coke and high temperatures,” Lewis said. “Working conditions are much less dangerous than they used to be, but the basic technology hasn’t changed.”
Lewis said Industrious Labs hopes to make this data available to local residents who live near power plants but may not have access to details and metrics about pollution in their neighborhoods. “Having access to this data is very important to them and it wasn’t something that didn’t exist in the past,” she said. “They’ve lived right next door to these facilities in Gary, Indiana, or East Chicago all their lives, and they didn’t know there was lead coming out of their chimneys.”
“Often people are led to believe that it’s genetic, and that’s a narrative that has to change.”
— Jermaine Patterson, Community Health Worker
For Jermaine Patterson, a community health worker in Clairton, Pennsylvania, who was interviewed for this report and has seen first-hand the health effects of living next to a coke plant, this data is a sign that she and Clairton It was further evidence of other people’s problems. I know very well. “It’s nothing I haven’t heard before, that’s for sure,” she said.
Still, she was surprised by the predicted statistics on asthma (250,504 symptoms per year) and premature deaths (460 to 892 per year) related to air pollution from coal-based steel manufacturing.
“Often people are led to believe that it’s genetic, and that’s a narrative that has to change,” she says. Mr Patterson hoped the report would reach policy makers and motivate them to promote better health protection for frontline communities.
Industrious Labs wants to advocate for these remaining mills to transition to green steelmaking using renewable energy sources such as direct reduced iron and green hydrogen. Green steel manufacturing can reduce emissions by 95% compared to coal-based steel manufacturing. Direct reduced iron is produced in furnaces that operate below the melting point of iron, so it can be produced without the use of coal.
Lewis said climate change advocates don’t want old steel mills to close like they did in other parts of the country and become relics of an earlier industrial era. Rather, they believe that the transition to green steel manufacturing has the potential to economically revitalize steel communities and dramatically change public health outcomes for residents.
“What we need is for businesses to invest. We need governments to support this transition,” she said. He said more legislation, like the Inflation Control Act, is needed to help the industry move away from coal.
In a statement, Dempsey touted that U.S. companies have already invested “tens of millions of dollars” in direct reduction iron and continued partnerships with governments to make green steel manufacturing a reality. “Several U.S. steel producers are actively working with the Department of Energy on new initiatives to encourage further investment in low-emission steel manufacturing in the United States,” he said.
Although green steelmaking is not yet widespread, Lewis sees evidence of its bright future in new facilities being built using the technology in Ohio, Ontario, and Sweden. “This transition is ongoing,” she said.
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Kylie Bence
pennsylvania reporter
Kylie Bence covers climate change and the environment with a focus on Pennsylvania, politics, energy and public health. She reports on the impact of Pennsylvania’s fracking boom, the expansion of America’s plastics industry, and the intersection of climate change and culture. Her previous work has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Smithsonian Magazine, Believer, and Sierra Magazine, and she holds a master’s degree in journalism and creative writing from Columbia University. She is based in Pennsylvania.
