 Neville Island’s Shenango Coke Works Plant in operation before the plant’s 2016 closing. Credit: Brian Cohen for The Heinz Endowments Previous research by the Allegheny County Health Department, which oversees air quality in the region, found that ER visits for asthma dropped 38% and visits for heart problems decreased by 27% the year after the closure of Shenango Coke Works, but local health officials were reluctant to attribute the change to the plant shutdown. At the time, local health officials told EHN that the changes they’d observed in particulate matter pollution after the plant’s closure weren’t substantial enough to cause such a dramatic drop in emergency room visits for asthma, based on what they’d seen in other studies. But in the last several years, a growing body of research indicates that the source and makeup of particulate matter pollution determine how toxic it is. “Coal-related particulate matter is more toxic than other types of particulate matter pollution,” Wuyue Yu, the new study’s lead author and a doctoral science student at NYU, told EHN. “So the significant reduction of these types of particles could explain why such a small change in overall particulate matter pollution had such a dramatic effect.” Thuston pointed to other research showing that these coal-derived pollutants are rich in transition metals and sulfur, which he referred to as a “lethal combination.” “Sulfur itself isn’t the big problem, but it’s acidic, which makes these transition metals more bioavailable throughout the body,” he explained, pointing to a 2021 study showing that places with higher levels of transition metals and sulfur in their air had higher cardiovascular mortality rates. “Absorbing these particles in our bodies creates oxidative stress, which is linked to all kinds of health problems.”
“It’s imperative for our health that we stop burning fossil fuels”
| 
