Background Cardiovascular disease (CVD)accounts for 31% of all global deaths. Some CVD mortalities can be attributed to environmental factors such as particulate matters(PMs). Coal fired power plant is one of the major contributors of PM. However, the short-term effect of coal fired power plant on cardiovascular disease is not well studied. In this study, we investigate an association between coal capacity and CVD mortality from a global perspective.

Method Age and Sex-adjusted CVD mortalities of 111 countries were followed from 1998 to 2012.Coal capacity was defined as total capacity of coal fired power plants in a given country in a given year, from Utility Data Institute World Electric Power Plants(UDI WEPP)Database while CVD mortality were obtained from WHO mortality data. We applied mix model and adjusted other risk factors for analysis.

Results The average coal capacity around the world is increasing globally, but coal percentage used has been fairly constant(8555.18 MW(15.99%) in 1998–2002,12071.11 MW(16.71%)in 2003–2007 and 16394.05 MW(16.58%) in 2008–2012. One log coal capacity (unit: log MW) was associated with an increase in CVD mortality by 22.98(p=0.076) to 55.74(p<0.0001) per million males and 4.83(p=0.373)to 28.71(p<0.0001)per million females, during 1998–2002 in different regions.

Conclusion The result of the current study indicated that after adjusting for commonly known risk factors of cardiovascular disease, coal fired power plants emission is correlated with country specific short term cardiovascular mortality.