Zug Island pollution causes premature deaths, Harvard epidemiologist says

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Twenty-six premature deaths are modeled to have occurred in a single year due to excess sulfur dioxide emissions by Zug Island’s EES Coke Battery, an epidemiologist testified in federal court Thursday. 

Joel Schwartz, professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, testified in the bench trial of the EPA’s Clean Air Act lawsuit against EES Coke Battery and DTE Energy.

The government is seeking $140 million in penalties and corrective measures for excess sulfur dioxide pollution from EES Coke Battery and its effects.

Schwartz’s quantitative risk assessment found 3.8 nonfatal heart attacks, 8,000 acute respiratory symptom days, 14.5 new asthma cases, and additional Alzheimer’s cases occurred nationally in 2019 due to sulfur dioxide and PM 2.5 — particulate matter — pollution from EES Coke Battery, he said.

The social cost of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter pollution from EES Coke Battery from 2019-2022 totals $1 billion, Schwartz said.

Schwartz is named as the most published author in the field of air pollution by the academic database the Web of Science.

‘What’s the cost of having an asthma attack?’

Schwartz’s public health study is based on analysis by Lyle Chinkin, an air quality expert who testified Wednesday that PM 2.5 pollution from EES Coke Battery traveled as far as Maine, Missouri, and the coast of North Carolina. 

In Chinkin’s model of sulfur dioxide emissions, he found the highest concentrations, between 50 to 100 parts per billion, near the facility’s fenceline. The EPA sets 1-hour sulfur dioxide standards at 75 parts per billion.

Schwartz calculated a social cost of $66 per ton of excess sulfur dioxide emitted. Taking 2019 data alone, the social costs amount to $190,000, he said. For sulfur dioxide pollution during the period of 2019 to 2022, the social cost amounts to $719,334, Schwartz said. 

“What’s the cost of having an asthma attack? What’s the additional value of pain and suffering?” Schwartz said. “What resources of society were burned up treating this person?” 

The scientific consensus is that PM 2.5 is a risk factor for death, Schwartz said. The Centers for Disease Control, American Medical Association, EPA, World Health Organization, and the American Thoracic Society are in agreement on this, he said.

PM 2.5 causes an increase in adverse health effects, Schwartz said, that include heart attacks, stroke, increased blood pressure, hardening of the arteries, cancer risk, cognitive decline, and dementia, he said. 

“Increased concentration of PM 2.5 means an increased risk of death,” Schwartz said. 

PM 2.5 is a mix of sulfate, nitrate, elemental carbon, organic particle compounds, ammonium, and trace elements like metal, he said. “Little tiny particles” of PM 2.5 can get into the lungs and into the bloodstream, Schwartz said. 

Premature deaths are still occurring, Schwartz said, and annual impacts will continue until proper controls are installed at EES Coke Battery, he said.

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