"The public health impacts are significant, even in Louisiana, which is not overly dependent on coal-fired power," said Aaron Viles, Gulf States Field Director for U.S. PIRG, a nonprofit public interest advocacy organization.

Louisiana has four coal-fired power plants, in DeSoto, Calcasieu, Pointe Coupee and Rapides. In 2002, those four plants released 101,900 tons of sulfur dioxide, 80,400 tons of nitrogen oxide, 46 million tons of carbon dioxide and 1,240 pounds of mercury, according to information compiled from reports to the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

Using an EPA methodology, EPA's air quality consultants Asb Associates took those pollution levels and translated them into an estimated 377 deaths, 507 heart attacks, 48 lung cancer deaths, 8,478 asthma attacks, 315 hospital admissions and 243 chronic bronchitis cases linked with pollution from the four Louisiana coal- fired power plants.

The report also uses those health numbers to compare three options for "clean air" policy being discussed in Washington, D.C.: the current Clean Air Act; the Bush administration's "Clear Skies Initiative"; and a bill being presented by U.S. Sen. Jim Jeffords, an Independent from Vermont.

According to the report, both the Clean Air Act and the Jeffords bill would provide more public health protection.

Mary Lee Orr, executive director of the Louisiana Environmental Action Network, said many people think of air pollution as affecting only people's lungs. However, she said, the recent report provides data that there are more health implications.

"It does put a lot of extra stress on your cardiac system when you're exposed to pollution," she said.

Viles pointed to the American Heart Association's statement last week that air pollution is a serious cardiovascular risk. Most of that statement involves the impact of small particles of material people breath that can affect heart function. Louisiana currently meets or exceeds the federal standard on particulate matter.

However, Viles said many coal power plants could still greatly reduce the amount of pollution - including particulate matter - by adopting new, clearer technologies.

"We know how to clean up coal-powered power plants. The technology is out there," Viles said. "Less pollution, very simply, means less health impacts."

Dakin DuBrock, spokeswoman for Entergy - a company with partial ownership in two of Louisiana's coal-fired power plants - said plants have been getting cleaner.

"One of the things those reports don't mention are all the improvements that have been made," she said. "We're using more electricity, but the emissions have come down."

The U.S. PIRG report and additional information is available at http://cta.policy.net/dirtypower/.