Data center pollution could contribute to 1,300 early deaths a year by 2028

The electricity behind the AI buildout has a health bill, and former EPA officials have now put numbers on it: up to $20.9 billion a year by 2028, and in a high-growth scenario about 1,300 premature deaths.

What the report says

The Environmental Protection Network, a group of former EPA officials, published a report called “Hidden Health Costs of AI Data Centers.” Its central figures come from a 2026 study by researchers at UC Riverside, Caltech and the Rochester Institute of Technology, who used an EPA model to estimate the health effects of air pollution from the power plants and backup generators that keep US data centers running.

The study’s result: $11.7 billion to $20.9 billion in annual public health costs by 2028. Under its high-growth scenario, that pollution could contribute to roughly 600,000 asthma symptom cases and 1,300 premature deaths.

The part the modeling does not include

The report also documents at least 30 federal actions since January 2025 that it says could increase pollution-related health risks or weaken protections against them. The study’s estimates were built before those changes, so the modeling does not account for them. If emissions grow beyond the study’s assumptions, the report says, the health toll will be higher.

Who carries the cost

The numbers reframe what AI actually costs. Beyond subscriptions and capital expenditure, part of the bill lands in the air around the power plants and generators that run the servers, often on communities far from the data centers themselves and far from the industry that needs them. The open question is whether pollution controls keep pace with a buildout that is accelerating on every other axis.