According to a new study by The Clean Air Task Force, Columbus ranks 13th in the nation for health risks from power plant pollution.
The report claims Ohio is the second worst state in the nation for deaths from coal-fired power plants. The Clean Air Task Force estimates the pollution from power plants will cause more than 200 heart attacks and kill more than 130 people living in and around Columbus this year.
AEP questions the methodology of the study and the claimed link between coal-fired power plants and the deaths of Ohioans.
April Stinson lives in the shadows of the Gavin coal-fired power plant stacks in Cheshire, Ohio.
"My husband died at age 52 and my sister-in-law who lived in Cheshire died of asthma at 50 years old," said Stinson.
She said a link can't be proved between her husband and sister-in-law's deaths and the emissions from the power plant.
"We didn't really have any health issues with him until the blue plume," said Stinson.
She is referring to Sulfuric Acid emissions in 2001, which after a federal lawsuit, led to AEP buying most of the homes in Cheshire.
"The village stayed strong, fought through and won a federal case and got the polution cleared up. Now, it's a good place to live again," Stinson said.
"Well I was born and raised in that house there," Jim Rife said, pointing to an older home in front of his modular home.
Both homes are within blocks of the Gavin plant.
"We have health issues, but I can't blame it on the power plant. No one has said, 'hey the reason you have asthma is because you live near the power plant,'" said Rife.
AEP Spokesperson Melissa Mchenry said, "In the last decade, we have cut emissions of Sulfer Dioxide and Nitrogen Oxides by 70 percent."
Stinson said, "AEP should have done the improvements a long time ago. There would have never had to be a sale of property, never have been lower standards pushed onto anybody and we all could have been healthier from it," she said.
The report found more than 13,000 deaths nationwide can be attributed to fine particle pollution from power plants each year. That number is almost half what was found in a study six years ago.
A reduction the Clean Air Task Force said is likely the result of new state and federal regulations.
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