Just last week, I posted an article on Energy Central on how the push for clean energy goes beyond climate change but also the health-related affects of fossil fuel air pollution. People inherently understand that breathing in the emissions from coal or gas plants has negative effects on health, causing lung issues, asthma, and other health threats-- particularly for the young, sick, and elderly populations. Climate change is often the focus, and rightfully so given the existential threat it poses, but I was just hoping to remind readers of the localized negative externalities from unclean power generation.

In that context, I was interested to read in the week since an article on BBC about how the negative effects of air pollution can go even further. The article, appropriately titled "How air pollution is dong more than killing us," takes these localized concerns of dirty power generation steps further. Described in this article are some of the following negative effects that are pretty surprising and alarming:

Emerging studies link air pollution to impaired judgment and mental health issues, including teens more likely to suffer from psychotic episodes when exposed to toxic air pollution. One researcher put it succintly: "If it's bad for the body, it's expected that it's bad for the brain."

Air pollution tracks with poorer school performance, with studies finding that even within one school population the worst performances coincided with the days of the most severe pollution

Beyond test scores, schools are also more likely to have to deal with delinquent behavior (cheating, truancy, stealing, vandalism, substance abuse) that increases in areas that have more pollution

Depending on air pollution levels, the level of crime in an area can even increase. One study found that "air pollution predicted six major categories of crime," which includes violent and severe crimes. While these studies were corrrelative and not focused to measure cause, it did account for population, employment, age, and gender and still found pollution as a way to predict crime rates

This on top of the common estimates that air pollution causes seven million deaths per year

These effects are not isolated, either, as urbanization has led to 9 out of 10 people globally being classified as "frequently breathe in dangerous levels of polluted air" according to the World Health Organization

These studies should for the time being be taken with a grain of salt, as causation vs. correlation is not determined and further study is necessary. But the results in the meantime are enough to be alarming. The reason I wanted to highlight this article and colelction of studies is to continue to push the conversation on clean energy vs. polluting fossil fuels-- while the climate debate is a necessary place to start and focus, are advocates pushing for more clean energy failing to highlight these localized issues of the status quo? Should the negative effects felt in areas with higher air pollution, such as those in the immediate vicinity of coal plants, be a more significant talking point and motivating factor in hastening a clean energy transition? Is there a missed opportunity to explore here?