EPA cites cancer risks from airborne toxins

by Jeff NeSmith : Cox News Service Posted on Sat, Jun. 01, 2002

WASHINGTON - More than 20 million Americans breathe toxic chemicals that expose them to cancer risks at least 100 times "acceptable" levels, according to voluminous data released quietly Friday by the Environmental Protection Agency.

Those most at risk are mainly city dwellers, but virtually everyone who breathes outdoor air in the United States has a lifetime cancer risk 10 times greater than the acceptable threshold because of toxic pollutants, the EPA said.

The EPA's long-awaited National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment lists airborne inventories of 33 toxic pollutants for every census tract in the United States. It appeared without announcement on an agency Internet page Friday afternoon, and environmental groups publicized it.

"These findings are a wake-up call that the EPA should take action to reduce this long overlooked public health threat," said Emily Figdor, a clean air advocate at the U.S. Public Interest Research Group.

"After nearly a decade of delay, the EPA still has yet to fulfill its mandate under the Clean Air Act to reduce the risks posed by toxic emissions from cars, trucks and non-road engines, like construction and farm equipment, and their fuels," she said.

The data are based on the agency's 1996 inventory of toxic emissions from such pollution sources as factories, incinerators, filling stations, cars, trucks, forest fires and outboard motors.

These data were combined with mathematical models that try to predict the dispersing effect of prevailing winds and such demographic factors as time spent outdoors in specified areas.

The EPA considers any pollutant that results in a lifetime cancer risk greater than one chance in 1 million to be "of concern."

Over all, Americans face risks of 10 chances in 1 million of developing cancer because of pollutants in the air they breathe, according to the newly released data.

And the data show that 20 million Americans, primarily in metropolitan areas, face risks of at least 100 times the standard, or 100 chances in 1 million.

Six Twin Cities metro area counties - Anoka, Dakota, Hennepin, Ramsey, Scott and Washington - had the highest risk levels in Minnesota. Each was in the top national tier of counties, with a lifetime cumulative cancer risk of 54 to 190 per million of population.

Another four metro-area counties - Carver, Rice, Sherburne, and Wright - were in the next tier, with a cancer risk of 43 to 54 per million. Two other counties, St. Louis in northeastern Minnesota and Olmsted in the southeast, were in the same category.

The exposures represent conditions in 1996, continuing at that rate for 70 years, and only deal with exposures from outdoor sources of air toxics. They do not take into account any subsequent emissions reductions.

The data are posted at the EPA's Web site in a format that allows a user to click on maps showing relative risk categories for selected chemicals in his or her own county.