autism & Chicago's toxic air: EPA isn't making it widely known

[Guest guest]

The Chicago Tribune has an important article about airborne pollution in

the Region. The article described factors known to contribute to autism.

Photos accompanying the article are informative. Similar articles could

be written for many cities and industrial regions in America. Local

newspapers' editors and reporters can be asked to prepare and publish an

in-depth article similar to the Tribune's. As we've come to expect, the

EPA has swept the pollution data under the proverbial rug. My comment

linking autism with airborne pollutants follows the news item.

ps: This post may be forwarded hither and yon.

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Chicago's toxic air

Chicago-area residents face some of the highest risk of getting sick

from pollution, but the EPA isn't making it widely known

By Hawthorne and Darnell Little | Chicago Tribune reporters

11:17 PM CDT, September 28, 2008

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-pollution-risk-29-sep29,0,4323308.s\

tory

People living in Chicago and nearby suburbs face some of the highest

risks in the nation for cancer, lung disease and other health problems

linked to toxic chemicals pouring from industry smokestacks, according

to a Tribune analysis of federal data.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency spent millions of dollars to

assess the dangers that air pollution poses but has failed to fulfill

promises to make the research more accessible to the public. So the

Tribune is posting the information on its Web site, where users can

easily find nearby polluters and the chemicals going into their air.

Those who look up Cook County will see it ranked worst in the nation for

dangerous air pollution, based on 2005 data. The Tribune also found

Chicago was among the 10 worst cities in the U.S.

The factory with the highest risk score in Chicago is a steel mill on

the edge of upscale Lincoln Park, a neighborhood where it isn't uncommon

to find people buying organic dog food.

In Will and DuPage Counties, six factories rank in the region's worst

50, though residents of the collar counties generally face much lower

risks than people who live in Cook. Nearby Lake County, Ind., has nine

of the worst polluters in the region.

So how much danger does a person living near these factories face? The

EPA didn't try to answer that difficult question. Air pollution is just

one factor that can affect the chances of developing health problems.

Instead, the agency's research sought to compare certain areas with

others across the country.

Most of the air pollution is legal under federal laws and regulations.

Environmental permits limit air pollution but don't eliminate it.

Yet there are increasing concerns that the rules don't adequately

protect public health.

A growing body of research shows dirty air is more dangerous than had

been thought. Heavy metals and chemicals these factories put into the

air---such as chromium, lead, manganese and sulfuric acid---have been

linked to cancer, learning disabilities and other ailments.

And federal officials acknowledge that existing regulations don't

address the cumulative risk posed by multiple polluters. That's

particularly significant around Chicago, where the legacy of a gritty

industrial past is dirty factories operating close to residential

neighborhoods.

" This raises very important questions about public health in our

communities, " said Dr. Orris, chief of environmental and

occupational medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical

Center. " If the government's own data shows we have a problem, they

should be doing more about it. "

Some of the polluters are highly visible, including the sprawling Mittal

Steel plant in Riverdale and the Corn Products refinery in Bedford Park.

Others are metal plating shops and chemical makers tucked away in low,

nondescript buildings on the edges of residential neighborhoods where

people might not know of the potential risks.

Minority neighborhoods have been hit hardest, from the mostly Latino

enclave of Pilsen to mostly black communities on the city's South and

West Sides. Of the Top 50 polluters in Cook County in 2005, 60 percent

are where black or Latino residents outnumber whites.

Nearly two dozen of the region's top polluters are within 8 miles of the

Altgeld Gardens public housing project off 130th Street on the Far South

Side, where nearly all residents are African-American. The two-story

brick apartments are surrounded by steel mills, abandoned factories,

landfills and a sewage treatment plant.

" We're like a big environmental lab for all of the mistakes industry has

made over the years, " said Cheryl , a lifelong Altgeld resident

who is carrying on the environmental activism her mother, Hazel, started

in the 1980s. " We see and smell and live with this pollution every day.

I may not have a science degree, but it isn't good. "

EPA scientists spent a decade creating and refining the data analyzed by

the Tribune. The project assesses the relative health risks of air

pollution by combining industry-supplied emissions data, rankings of the

health dangers posed by chemicals and heavy metals, how the pollution

spreads in the air, and how many people live nearby.

The research doesn't consider air pollution from other sources, such as

cars and diesel trucks. But EPA officials say the health-risk scores

they compiled highlight polluted areas that deserve more scrutiny.

They also acknowledge they have fallen behind in identifying pollution

hot spots and in tightening regulations to reduce health risks.

" We haven't gotten to all of the sources, " said Guinnup, a top

official in the EPA's Office of Air Quality Planning and Standards.

" It's an ongoing fight as we continue to look for ways that we can

ratchet down emissions and reduce the cancer and non-cancer risk. "

Risk scores can change from year to year when emissions from factories

change or facilities open and close. In fact, the polluter ranked as the

worst in Cook County--- Chicago Castings Co. in Cicero---closed this year.

That could affect Cook's ranking in future studies. Still, between 2000

and 2005, Cook was worst in the nation four times and was in the Top 5

the other two years, according to the Tribune analysis.

One factory behind the county's high risk score is the A. Finkl and Sons

steel mill just west of Lincoln Park.

Company officials actively promote themselves as environmentally

friendly---a sign stretching over Cortland Street boasts that Finkl has

planted 5 million trees, and for years the company hosted an annual

Green Tie Ball to help fund highway beautification projects. Yet the

chromium, lead, manganese, nickel and zinc it churns into the

neighborhood are responsible for nearly a third of the city's total

health risk from factory emissions.

Finkl plans to close the mill near Lincoln Park, where the population is

84 percent white, and move to another site on East 93rd Street on the

Southeast Side, a neighborhood that is 96 percent black. Bruce

Liimatainen, the company's chief executive, said the ranking surprised

him, noting that steel mills on the South Side and in northwest Indiana

release much more pollution.

" We are at the forefront of our industry as it relates to cleanliness, "

he said.

But Finkl ranks No. 1 in the city in part because it is so close to

densely populated neighborhoods.

The database also demonstrates how measuring the total amount of

pollution emitted into the air doesn't tell the whole story for people

who live nearby. Some chemicals and metals are far more toxic than others.

For instance, an Avery Dennison plant in Niles had the third highest

risk score in Cook County, even though it ranked 141st out of 308

factories based on pounds emitted. One of its pollutants is

diisocyanates, a highly toxic ingredient in specialty paints, varnishes

and foams that can trigger asthma attacks and other respiratory diseases.

The same chemical is responsible for No-Sag Foam Products in West

Chicago ranking as DuPage County's third-highest risk score. Repeated

calls to Avery Dennison were not returned; the new owner of No-Sag Foam

declined comment.

The EPA created the database to push companies to clean up voluntarily.

But success has been mixed, at best.

The agency used an earlier version of the database during the mid-1990s

to identify about two dozen Chicago-area factories that emit the most

hazardous air pollution. Many are still among the area's worst polluters.

Meanwhile, top agency officials delayed the public release of the latest

version of the risk database for more than a year. The EPA held a

workshop last year in Chicago to teach federal and state regulators how

to use the database, but it appears that nobody locally has done so.

" I don't know if we got beyond getting the software, " said Alan Walts, a

lawyer in the EPA's regional environmental justice program, which is

intended to make sure that minorities and the poor aren't

disproportionately hit by pollution.

Illinois environmental regulators haven't turned to the data to help

focus their efforts, either. In his Sept. 18 reply to a Freedom of

Information Act request from the Tribune, a state lawyer wrote: " The

Illinois EPA has no information about the [database], and has not used

it in any way. "

mhawthorne@...

dlittle@...

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How's /your/ air? Click here

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/rsei-database,0,3220483.htmlstory>

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Our dirty skies

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Photos

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0,1892925.photogallery>

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Neighborhood fights back

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0452.story>

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Fighting against air pollution

<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-080927-pilsenpollution-wn,0,400263\

9.worldnowvideo>

Video

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9.worldnowvideo>

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Pollutants and health

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Graphic

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THE REPORTERS

Hawthorne is the Tribune's environment reporter. He has written

previously about mercury in fish and Great Lakes pollution.

Darnell Little is a computer-assisted reporter for the Tribune. He has

analyzed U.S. Census data and school test scores for the newspaper.

Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

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Bintock post into Chicago Tribune url: *

Airborne pollutants including but not limited to mercury are associated

with increased rates of autism and with increased costs of special

education services (1-3). Here are three findings quoted from

peer-reviewed journals:

" The individual compounds that contributed most to these associations

included mercury, cadmium, nickel, trichloroethylene, and vinyl

chloride. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest a potential association

between autism and estimated metal concentrations, and possibly

solvents, in ambient air around the birth residence, requiring

confirmation and more refined exposure assessment in future studies. " [1]

" We found that for every 1000 pounds of industrial release, there was a

corresponding 2.6% increase in autism rates (p<.05) and a 3.7% increase

associated with power plant emissions(P<.05). Distances to these sources

were independent predictors after adjustment for relevant covariates.

For every 10 miles from industrial or power plant sources, there was an

associated decreased autism Incident Risk of 2.0% and 1.4%, respectively

(p<.05). " [2]

" There was a significant increase in the rates of special education

students and autism rates associated with increases in environmentally

released mercury. On average, for each 1,000 lb of environmentally

released mercury, there was a 43% increase in the rate of special

education services and a 61% increase in the rate of autism. The

association between environmentally released mercury and special

education rates were fully mediated by increased autism rates. " [3]

References

[1] Autism spectrum disorders in relation to distribution of hazardous

air pollutants in the san francisco bay area.

Windham GC et al. Environ Health Perspect. 2006 Sep;114(9):1438-44.

[2] Proximity to point sources of environmental mercury release as a

predictor of autism prevalence.

Palmer RF et al. Health Place. 2008 Feb 12.

[3] Environmental mercury release, special education rates, and autism

disorder: an ecological study of Texas.

Palmer RF et al. Health Place. 2006 Jun;12(2):203-9.

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