As the global demand for clean energy alternatives surges, the wood pellet industry, often touted as a sustainable fuel option, is projected to nearly double in size by 2026.
In the United States, the industry’s growth is most pronounced in the rural South, where 91 wood pellet manufacturing plants are situated, constituting 75% of U.S. production. Mississippi alone is home to seven wood pellet plants, four fully operational and three soon to open (or in early development) that are anticipated to be the largest in the world.
But this growing industry is facing scrutiny over its environmental, health and social impacts; similar to fossil fuel refineries, wood pellet plants are more than twice as likely to be located in predominantly Black and poor communities.
Erica Walker, RGSS Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Brown University School of Public Health, and her team of researchers have received a $5.8 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for their investigations into the emissions from wood pellet plants in Mississippi. This work represents the first study of wood pellet emissions on human health in the United States.
“It is fascinating–but not surprising–that predominantly Black and/or poor communities across Mississippi are being asked to undergird the shift to renewable and sustainable energy production,” Walker said. “When these large wood pellet companies move into these communities, they are bringing with them environmental externalities, which may negatively impact the towns and cities nearby. This award,” she said, “provides us with the opportunity to actually spell out what these environmental externalities are and to what extent they may negatively impact the health and well-being of the surrounding community.”
In collaboration with Dr. Krystal Martin from Greater Greener Gloster Project, Dr. Courtney Roper from the University of Mississippi, and Dr. Sharrelle Barber from Drexel University, Walker is expanding her research into the emissions from the industry in the state of Mississippi—specifically noise, particulate matter, black carbon, ozone, nitrogen dioxide and volatile organic compounds (VOCS)—which potentially exceed the thresholds established by the Clean Air Act by up to five times.
Walker and her team have spent the last year enrolling families with children—collecting survey and biological information—with the aim of understanding how these emissions are impacting children across the life course. They are focused on the Mississippi town of Gloster, home to 897 people, of which 71% are Black and 38.6% live in poverty, with an annual median income of $22,131.
They point out that vulnerable populations and children in particular are impacted by air pollution emitted from wood pellet production. Proximity to these plants is associated with a statistically significant higher risk of hospitalization for respiratory illnesses and increased asthma-like symptoms in children.
“Mississippi's children rank 49th in overall child well-being according to a recent KidsCount report,” Walker said. “I am excited about being able to consider the exposome (air, noise, water, visual and soil) pollution and follow the health of these young children until adulthood.”
Walker’s preliminary findings are the first air-quality and noise measurements taken in a Mississippi-based wood pellet-impacted community. She and her team measured their results against an air and noise pollution monitoring campaign in Mendenhall, Mississippi, a town with no current industrial activity. In Mendenhall, 34% of residents are Black, 35.8% live in poverty and residents have an annual median income of $35,956.
“When comparing air and noise pollution concentrations in Gloster to those in Mendenhall,” the authors write in their first report, “air and noise pollutant concentrations in Gloster are magnitudes higher, even after adjusting for meteorological conditions.”