Reductions in Respiratory Hospital Visits after a Coal Coking Plant Closure: A Natural Experiment.

ABSTRACT: Rationale: Abrupt air quality improvements have followed the closure or dramatic emission control of large air pollution sources. These "natural experiments" provide ideal opportunities to assess the real-world health benefits of air quality improvements. The shutdown of the Shenango coking plant, a significant fossil-fuel pollution source located on an island in the Ohio River near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, presented such an opportunity to test for changes in respiratory health in the local community after the closure. Objectives: We sought to identify and quantify the immediate and/or longer term changes in respiratory hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits among the population residing near the Shenango coke plant at the time of its closure. Methods:

SUBMITTER: Yu W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12618997 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature