January 5, 2008
Port proximity raises health risks Carcinogens linger around transit corridors; diesel blamed.
By Kristopher Hanson
Long Beach Press Telegram
DIAMOND BAR - The chance of developing cancer from air pollution in the Southland has declined in recent years, but people living near the ports and along transportation corridors continue to face highly elevated health risks.
Findings from a two-year study show the highest concentrations of airborne carcinogens centered around San Pedro Bay, downtown Los Angeles, Fontana and Burbank.
Researchers blame diesel exhaust for most of the risk.
"Diesel exhaust remains public enemy No. 1," said Barry Wallerstein, executive director of the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the agency that conducted the study.
"In spite of efforts to date ... we clearly have not adequately controlled diesel emissions in our region."
Other toxic elements analyzed in the study included lead, benzene, arsenic and formaldehyde.
Across the area studied, an area home to 16 million people in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, overall cancer risks from air pollution declined 15 percent when compared to a similar assessment completed in 1999.
But air quality in the Los Angeles Basin remains the poorest in the nation, and area residents suffer from elevated cancer rates as a result.
"Most people would say an acceptable (cancer) risk is maybe 1 to 10 people in a million, but we're averaging 1,200 in a million," Wallerstein said.
In the new study, researchers collected air quality samples at 15 sites across the region between April 2004 and March 2006, including in Long Beach, Wilmington and Carson.
A total of 18,000 samples were collected and analyzed for 33 of the most harmful airborne carcinogens known, said AQMD Spokesman Sam Atwood.
Those facing the greatest cancer risks live primarily in neighborhoods along busy freeways, railyards, near seaports and in areas dominated by factories and oil refineries, authors noted.
"In general, our low-income communities are exposed to the highest levels of toxic air pollution," Wallerstein said.
Overall, researchers estimate that an average of 1,200 out of every million people in the area studied will develop cancer from air toxins during their lifetime.
A lifetime was estimated to be 70 years.
However, that number can be significantly higher or lower depending on where you live.
Those living in Wilmington and downtown Los Angeles, for example, faced risks as much as five times the average, while people in Newport Beach and other South Orange County communities were exposed to one-third of that toxicity.
Generally, areas exposed to heavy diesel truck traffic and along major rail routes had the highest risks.
And diesel particulate matter, which health studies link to cancer, heart disease and asthma, composed 84 percent of the total toxic "air soup," Atwood said.
Of the four source categories studied, only off-road carcinogenic emissions increased from the 1999 study, a fact attributed to tremendous growth in rail and freight ship activity at the twin ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles.
Trade moving through the ports has nearly doubled since the late 1990s.
"It appears that growth in the goods movement industry has offset, or outstripped, the impact of cleaner fuels and emission controls," said AQMD Health Effects Officer Jean Ospital.
Other categories, which include on-road vehicles and fixed sources like factories and refineries, all saw significant decreases in emissions.
Authorities plan to use the study to push for further regulations and agreements that reduce air pollution.
The AQMD, which oversees air quality regulations in most of Southern California, already scored a major victory in 2007 when the ports jointly agreed to a plan that replaces or retrofits most of the 17,000 diesel trucks serving the harbor by 2012.
That effort, being funded in part by a $35 fee on cargo containers, will reduce diesel pollution from port trucks by 80 percent.
Port authorities are also working with industry to cut pollution from ships, cargo-handling equipment, tugboats and trains.
At the federal level, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has introduced legislation requiring ships to use low-sulfur fuels when in or near U.S. seaports.
In addition, new low-emission technologies on trucks and trains and the mandatory use of cleaner fuels nationally has helped cut diesel exhaust levels significantly in recent years.
"This reduction in cancer risk shows that we are on the right track," said AQMD Board Chairman William Burke. "However, the remaining cancer risk is completely unacceptable. Thousands of residents are getting sick and dying from toxic air pollution."
Copyright 2007 Long Beach Press-Telegram