World Asthma Day

Rally In Philadelphia

Tuesday, May 3 at 12:00 noon

Philadelphia City Hall - Broad St & Market St (start)
EPA Region 3 Headquarters - 17th & Arch St (end) 

"Brunner Island Is Making Us Sick!" 
- we will don breathing masks to protect our lungs. 

Speakers
Mary Anne Hitt (Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign Director)
Kenyatta Johnson (Phila Councilman - tentative)
Tom Schuster (Sierra Club)

Please RSVP (so we know how many masks to get)

On World Asthma Day, join Sierra Club for a rally to raise awareness about a loophole in the recently adopted smog regulations proposed by the PA Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that exempts one coal burning power plant from installing smog limiting pollution controls.


We insist that Brunner Island, the largest coal burning power plant upwind from Philadelphia, abide by the same smog regulations as other plants in PA - OR SHUT IT DOWN!


Speakers will include: Mary Anne Hitt, director of the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign, Kenyatta Johnson, Philadelphia City Councilman, and Tom Schuster, Senior Representative for the Sierra Club's Beyond Coal Campaign.

Schedule of events for May 3, 2016:

• 12:00 pm  Rally at the City Hall w/ Mom's Clean Air Force
• 12:45-ish  March to EPA Reg 3 HQ (17th & Arch)
•                 Press Conf, Speakers, Call on EPA to act on Brunner Island
• 5:30 pm  Reception at Drexel U - Stein Auditorium, 3215 Market Street
• 6:00 pm  Introduction of Years of Living Dangerously series by Mary Anne Hitt
• 6:15 pm  Viewing of Episode 4 of Years of Living Dangerously
• 7:30 pm  Discussion with Mary Anne Hitt

Info about Asthma

• Asthma is a “contributing factor” for over 7,000 U.S. deaths each year. 

• Philadelphia has the fifth highest asthma rates in the U.S.
• 1 in 8 children (over 51,000) in Philadelphia has asthma.

  

  In 2013, Brunner Island was by far the largest
  single stationary source of smog-causing
   pollution in all of Southeastern Pennsylvania.

• The highest asthma hospitalization rates in Pennsylvania are in Philadelphia; at 54.1 inpatient admissions for every 10,000 residents, nearly three times more than the entire state.
• In Philadelphia, African Americans are four times more likely to die from asthma than whites.

Info about Brunner Island

• Brunner Island (1615 MW) is the closest large coal-fired power plant upwind of Philadelphia.  It is located on the Susquehanna River on the border of York and Lancaster Counties.
• Brunner Island is the only remaining large conventional power plant in Pennsylvania that does not have Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) already installed.  SCR has the ability to reduce smog-causing NOx pollution by up to 90%.
  
  

Info about the Smog Rule

• The Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has adopted a rule that limits smog causing pollution from all power plants with SCR, but would require no emissions reductions at all from Brunner Island, simply because it has lagged behind all of its competitors and failed to install this important pollution control.
• This smog rule unfairly rewards the Brunner Island plant for dragging its feet on cleaning up pollution, while families downwind in southeastern PA continue to suffer the health impacts of elevated smog levels.

More Info at  sc.org/cutsmog, World Asthma Day