Doctors applaud move to phase out coal burning plants
Posted Nov 23, 2015 6:35 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Doctors are applauding Alberta’s climate change policy, as it aims to phase out coal burning power plants within 15 years.
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment says the province’s 18 plants produce 33 per cent of sulfur dioxide and 10 per cent of nitrous oxide in the air, and six per cent of industrial emissions.
Dr. Joe Vipond of the association is an emergency physician at the Foothills Medical Centre. He says the air pollutants cause serious respiratory and cardiovascular health issues.
“We can choose the food we drink, we can choose the water we drink, but we can’t choose the air we breath. We’re all forced to breath the air that’s around us. So this is going to improve everybody’s health,” he says.
Vipond says this is a huge leap forward, but there’s a host of other sources such as the oil and gas industry’s refineries and traffic that contribute to air pollutants.
