Social cost study of health impacts arising from natural gas thermal plant emissions in the Ibirite region

The Brazilian electricity matrix, despite being predominantly hydroelectric (64.9%), around 13% of the matrix is composed of fossil fuel thermoelectric plants, with the largest part being natural gas with 8.3%. According to several studies, the emission of pollutants is one of the main responsible for climate change in addition to being responsible for several respiratory problems of inhabitants around the thermoelectric plant. In this scenario, there is a thermoelectric plant located in the municipality of Ibirite/MG, which uses natural gas as an energy source and has a generation capacity of 226 MW. The present work carries out an approach of the health impacts of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases caused by pollutant emissions around a natural gas thermoelectric plant in the metropolitan region of Ibirite, quantifying the costs of medical treatment necessary for these diseases. For this it is necessary to consider some particular characteristics of the region such as geographic and meteorological data. As well as the operation data of the thermoelectric plant for the generation of electric energy in order to estimate the emissions produced. To obtain the results of the generated impacts, the SIMPACTS model (Simplified Approach for Estimating Impacts of Electricity Eeneration) was used, which considers an area of 5 km x5 km around the plant. This model uses the characteristics of the thermoelectric plant (height of the chimney, speed and temperature of the exit steam, etc.), the emission of pollutants from the plant (SO2, NOX and PM10) and the population density around the plant, to calculate the costs caused respiratory diseases such as asthma (bronchodilator use), minor chronic respiratory symptoms, infant mortality and acute mortality.