New Report: AI Data Center Boom Poses Growing Health Risks as EPA & Other Federal Agencies Weaken Protections Against Harmful Pollution

Former top EPA officials document at least 30 federal actions that, taken together, increase pollution-related health risks as data centers expand

EPN calls for “Data Center Health Protection Pledge” so Americans don’t pay for the AI boom with their health

WASHINGTON, D.C. — As AI data centers drive enormous new demand for electricity, a new report from the Environmental Protection Network finds that federal policy is moving in the wrong direction for health, weakening pollution safeguards, accelerating approvals, reducing public information and participation, and diminishing the science and enforcement capacity needed to understand and control pollution.

The Hidden Health Costs of AI Data Centers documents at least 30 federal actions since January 2025 that, taken together, increase pollution-related health risks as data centers expand. The report finds those risks extend well beyond the data-center fence line, including pollution from on-site generators and turbines and from power plants supplying enormous new electricity loads many miles away.

“You would think a buildout of this magnitude would mean more vigilance from EPA: stronger safeguards to make sure companies control their pollution, more science to understand what this scale will bring, and more monitoring,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, a pediatrician and former EPA Assistant Administrator. “Instead, EPA and other federal agencies are doing the opposite.”

FOUR KEY FINDINGS

1. The potential health toll is already substantial, but we still do not know the full scale.

One national study gives an indication of how large the health burden from data-center-related air pollution could become. But it does not account for the 30 federal actions documented in EPN’s report or capture the full range of pollution and health risks associated with the buildout. There is enough evidence to know there is a serious health concern. What is missing is the federal analysis needed to understand how large that burden could become, where it will fall, and how current policy choices are changing it.

Researchers from UC Riverside, Caltech and Rochester Institute of Technology estimate that data-center-related air pollution could impose roughly $11.7 billion to $20.9 billion in annual public-health costs by 2028. Under the study’s high-growth scenario, they estimate roughly 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths. EPN found no public analysis quantifying how the federal actions documented in its report will change that burden.

“The existing health study gives us a picture of the potential health burden under particular data-center growth and emissions scenarios. But it does not estimate the additional health effects of the 30 federal policy actions EPN documents,” said Dr. Dan Costa, who spent about 35 years at EPA studying how air pollution affects human health and led the agency’s national research program on air quality, climate and energy. “That is the analysis EPA should be doing now: measuring what these sources actually emit, modeling both local and regional air-quality effects, and translating those changes into health impacts.”

2. Data centers can drive pollution both nearby and far from where they are located.

On-site generators and turbines can create substantial local pollution risks. But in the 2026 study, more than 90 percent of the estimated health impacts came from power plants supplying electricity to data centers, and the burden was unevenly distributed. Rising electricity demand is also changing the power system: plans to retire or switch nearly 10 gigawatts of coal capacity were delayed as demand rose, while an Environmental Integrity Project analysis identified at least 74 proposed gas plants dedicated to data centers.

“You do not have to live near a data center to be affected by it,” Goldman said. “Air pollution comes from diesel generators and gas turbines at or near a data-center campus. But much of it can come from power plants many miles away that produce the electricity data centers use. And when you are talking about pollution that makes people sick, scale matters.”

3. At least 30 federal actions are weakening the systems meant to keep this buildout from increasing pollution and health risks.

Seventeen of the 30 actions documented by EPN explicitly cite or target AI or data centers. The other 13 affect how data centers are powered, what pollution safeguards apply, how projects are approved, or how federal requirements are enforced.

Those actions cut across three basic protections:

Pollution safeguards. Federal agencies are keeping some fossil-fueled power online longer while weakening or reconsidering safeguards for soot, mercury and air toxics, interstate smog pollution, oil and gas pollution, coal wastewater and coal ash.
Permitting and public review. EPA and other agencies are allowing projects to move further ahead before key pollution requirements are resolved, while reducing or proposing to reduce opportunities for the public to learn about projects and weigh in before major commitments are made.
Science, monitoring and enforcement. At the same time, EPA has lost scientific and enforcement capacity needed to measure emissions, assess health risks, inspect facilities and make sure pollution laws are followed.

“Passing a law is not effective unless you enforce it. And issuing a permit is not the same thing as ensuring compliance with it,” said Larry Starfield, former Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “The AI buildout makes the enforcement function more necessary, not less. Our system has never depended on simply trusting industry to police itself. Independent oversight matters.”

4. Communities are being left with less information, less say and less recourse.

Data center projects are already moving forward amid nondisclosure agreements and accelerated review processes that can limit what residents know and when they can weigh in. Federal actions are also weakening or proposing to weaken disclosure and public-participation requirements, directing added restraint in some energy enforcement cases, and seeking broader federal authority to end Clean Air Act citizen suits when regulators fail to act.

“Reasonable people can favor faster permitting. But faster permitting shouldn’t mean ‘build first and ask the pollution questions later,’” said Walter Mugdan, former EPA Deputy Regional Administrator, who spent 48 years at the agency. “And it shouldn’t mean less information or less say for the people who will live with the consequences. People are showing up at data center meetings because they want and deserve a voice in decisions that affect where they live and what they breathe. Government should be opening those doors, not closing them.”

WHAT EPA SHOULD DO NOW TO PROTECT PEOPLE’S HEALTH

The report calls on EPA to reverse course in those same areas: restore and enforce pollution safeguards; make sure data centers and their on-site power are properly permitted and monitored, with meaningful public review before major decisions are locked in; and maintain and rebuild the science, monitoring and enforcement capacity needed to understand what facilities are emitting and make sure the law is followed.

Across all three, EPA should measure how the buildout is changing pollution, who is being exposed and what that means for health, and make that information public.

EPN CALLS FOR A DATA CENTER HEALTH PROTECTION PLEDGE

The White House has advanced a Ratepayer Protection Pledge aimed at keeping families from bearing higher electricity costs from the AI boom. As part of its Safer, Not Sicker campaign, EPN is calling for the same principle to apply to public health with a Data Center Health Protection Pledge.

“This administration has recognized that families should not get stuck with higher electric bills because of the AI boom through its Ratepayer Protection Pledge. We think the same principle should apply to health,” Boom said. “If families shouldn’t have to pay for the AI boom through their electricity bills, they shouldn’t have to pay for it with their health either. That’s why we are calling for a Data Center Health Protection Pledge.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Watch the Press event recording: LINK TO RECORDING
Full report, The Hidden Health Costs of AI Data Centers: LINK TO REPORT

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ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION NETWORK
The Environmental Protection Network is a nonpartisan organization comprising more than 800 former EPA scientists, toxicologists, chemists, biologists, engineers, and policy analysts — many of whom spent decades as career experts inside the agency. They assessed cancer and developmental risks, studied links between pollution and fertility and chronic disease, investigated contaminated communities, and brought enforcement actions to hold corporate polluters accountable. EPN was founded in 2017 to serve as an independent voice promoting science-based policies that protect families’ health.