Health costs from electricity generation in the United States

The attempt in this paper is to assess the health costs associated with electricity generation in the US general population. Health risk figures are used to estimate the total number of persons subjected to pollutant-induced mortality and mobility due to operation of fossil-fuel, nuclear energy, and renewable energy cycles. Health costs for different fuel-cycles are given for the census-divided regions of the US. Total national health costs are estimated to be between $8.7 and $69.4 billion annually for 1989 electricity generation level. Of these, about 95% to 99% are from fossil-fuel cycles. 65 refs., 4 tabs