Assessing health benefits of controlling air pollution from power generation: The case of a lignite-fired power plant in Thailand

The impact pathway approach (IPA) is used to estimate quantitatively the le vel of health effects caused by particulate matter (PM,,) and sulfur dioxid e (SO,) emission from a lignite-fired power plant located in the Mae Moh ar ea in northern region of Thailand. Health benefits are then assessed by com paring the levels of estimated health impacts without and with the installa tion of the flue gas desulfurization (FGD) equipment. The US EPA industrial source complex model is used to model air pollution dispersion at the loca l scale, and the sector average limited mixing meso-scale model is used to model air pollution transport at the regional scale. The quantification of the health end points in physical terms is carried out using the dose-respo nse functions established recently for the population in Bangkok, Thailand. Monetarization of these effects is based on the benefit transfer method wi th appropriate adjustment. Finally, it has been found that the installation of the FGD to control SO, emission at Mae Moh significantly reduces advers e health effects not only on the population living near the power plant but also all over the country. A FGD unit installed at the 300-MW power unit c an result, on average, in 16 fewer cases of acute mortality, 12 fewer cases of respiratory and cardiac hospital admissions, and almost 354,000 fewer d ays with acute respiratory symptoms annually. In monetary terms this benefi t is equivalent to US $18.2 million (1995 prices) per annum. This benefit i s much higher than the annualized investment and operation costs of FGD (US $7.4 million/yr).