AI's Growing Energy and Water Demands Pose Overlooked Public Health Risks, Experts Warn

The rapid expansion of artificial intelligence across healthcare and other sectors is creating a largely overlooked strain on the electricity and water systems fundamental to public health, according to leading epidemiologists. While AI promises to accelerate drug discovery, improve diagnostics, and strengthen disease surveillance, the vast data centers powering these advances require extraordinary amounts of electricity and water at a scale growing faster than many communities and power grids can accommodate.

"Reliable electricity is a public health necessity," write Sten H. Vermund, dean of the University of South Florida College of Public Health, and Patricia J. Kissinger, associate dean of the Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, in a STAT News commentary. "Hospitals, clinics, emergency services, vaccines and medicines, and home medical equipment all depend on stable and affordable power."

The Health Toll of Data Center Energy Consumption

When data centers draw power from fossil-fuel-dependent grids, they contribute to emissions of fine particulate matter and other pollutants definitively linked to cardiovascular disease (search)Search disease, respiratory illness (search)Search disease, and premature mortality. These exposures are not evenly distributed. Communities with lower incomes and historically marginalized populations are more likely to be located near power plants and major transmission infrastructure, bearing a disproportionate share of the resulting health burden.

The growing electricity demand also threatens health system resilience. Strain on regional power grids can increase the risk of instability or outages, with direct consequences for patients at hospitals, clinics, and at home who depend on uninterrupted power for life-sustaining care. Power outages can mean the failure of air conditioning systems or life-saving home medical equipment—a scenario particularly dangerous for older adults, people with disabilities, and those with chronic illness.

Researchers at Harvard University have recently emphasized that while AI offers considerable societal benefits, policymakers should also consider the health risks associated with emissions generated by the energy demands of AI infrastructure. Similarly, growing concerns have emerged regarding the cumulative health impacts of expanding data center networks on surrounding communities, highlighting the need for further empirical research into environmental exposures and population health outcomes.

Water Stress and Critical Mineral Extraction

Data center expansion also increases demand for water used in cooling systems, exacerbating local water stress and indirectly affecting sanitation, heat mitigation, and overall community health. Beyond energy and water, AI development is driving increased demand for critical minerals such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements essential for advanced computing technologies. The extraction and processing of these materials may expose workers and surrounding communities to environmental contamination, occupational hazards, and water quality challenges if not managed responsibly.

A Proposed Solution: 24/7 Carbon-Free Energy Matching

Current approaches to managing these impacts are inadequate, Vermund and Kissinger argue. Technology companies often rely on carbon offsets or annual renewable energy purchases to balance their emissions—strategies that do not ensure clean energy is available when and where it is needed. Data centers may draw power from fossil-fuel-dependent grids while still claiming to be "net zero" on paper.

The authors propose a more effective and transparent solution: every kilowatt-hour of electricity consumed by AI data centers should be matched by new, clean energy added to the same grid at the same time. This "hourly, location-based" matching, sometimes called 24/7 carbon-free energy, can ensure that increased demand is paired directly with increased clean supply.

"Emerging research suggests that aligning large electricity demand with renewable generation, storage, and real-time grid management can simultaneously reduce costs, emissions, and system strain," they write. "Importantly, it can also reduce real-time exposure to air pollution in the communities where electricity is generated. In this sense, kilowatt-hour matching is not only a policy innovation but a targeted public health intervention."

Unlike carbon offsets, which can be difficult to verify and are often disconnected from local conditions, kilowatt-hour matching is measurable and enforceable. Data center operators gain more predictable energy costs and improved reliability, communities gain new clean energy infrastructure rather than additional exposure to pollution, and regulators gain a clearer, more accountable framework for oversight.

AI's Dual Role in Health Security

The World Health Organization has recognized AI as an important tool for improving health outcomes and advancing universal health coverage when implemented responsibly. AI-enabled surveillance systems also have the potential to strengthen preparedness for future public health emergencies by identifying emerging disease threats more quickly and improving resource allocation during outbreaks.

Yet these benefits rely on an expanding network of data centers, high-performance computing facilities, semiconductor manufacturing, and global supply chains that require substantial energy, water, and mineral resources. As countries race to develop increasingly powerful AI systems, the physical infrastructure supporting these technologies is placing growing demands on local communities and the environment.

"AI will play a central role in the future of health and society," Vermund and Kissinger conclude. "But its growth should not come at the expense of the energy systems on which that future depends. Linking AI's electricity use directly to clean energy development is a practical, achievable step, one that can help ensure that technological progress strengthens, rather than strains, the foundations of public health."