Air pollution from fossil fuel use causes many health problems. Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth’s Energy and Health Impact Calculator is a free tool that uses data from the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy, as well as other peer-reviewed data, to estimate the negative health impacts and health care costs caused by fossil fuel energy use and the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
The Calculator estimates the number of health incidents, medical treatment costs, and societal costs by energy unit including premature deaths, chronic bronchitis, asthma attacks, emergency room visits, and more.
The following chart shows the health impacts related to a sample hospital. By transitioning to 30% renewable electricity, a 200-bed hospital in the Midwest using 7 million kilowatt-hours annually will avoid an estimated 52 health-related incidents per year, a societal value of nearly $1 million.
