(Photo : Pearl River Delta)

The dreadful findings have brought an appeal for the province to reverse plans for supplementary 22 stations and just stick with the 2009 policy of "no new coal-fired plants" on the Pearl River Delta.

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Dr. Andrew Gray, an American private air quality consultant performed the estimation. He is appointed by the Greenpeace to study the health attributions of the proposed plants' emissions of fine particles that are less than 2.5 micrometers in size. The number of deaths would add to an already existing heavy head toll of the affected from the 96 coal-fired plants already in operation in the province and in Hong Kong.

Zhou Rong, energy and climate campaigner of Greenpeace said that the collective impact of these proposed plants on the health of human is simply astounding.

The PRD or Pearl River Delta region must sternly implement the policy of "no new coal-fired plants" in order to feed its desire for energy, Zhou Rong added.

Mr. Gray used the CALPUFF computer model for his study. This CALPUFF computer model was endorsed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for trans-boundary air pollution and emission facts from the Ministry of Environmental Protection and power companies.

With the use a model developed by the World Health Organization on mortality risks from human exposure to fine particles, the effects of coal-fired plants were estimated, too.

Almost 50 percent of the additional power stations, with a capacity totaling to 26,000 megawatts, are under construction while the remaining are still in the setting up stage.

Two-thirds of the foreseen 16,000 deaths in the next 40 years would be related to stroke and the rest would probably be due to heart diseases and lung cancer.

The said proposed coal-fired plants would also cause 19,000 new cases of chronic bronchitis and 15,000 new cases of child asthma.

With these "close-to-reality" predictions, the Pearl River Delta region authorities must think a hundredth times before jumping into the implementation of the proposed coal-fired plants because lives of several locals can be greatly ruined.