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Older cities' achilles
- 1. The Real Driver Behind Health & Learning Disparities between Mixed-Use and R-2 Zones in Worcester, MA Researched by Liz St. John's Analytics January 22, 2013 Edited by: Jane Maine February 5, 2013 1
- 2. Sources of poisoning Dangers of lead paint and mold poisoning Dangers of Industrial Gaseous Toxins Affect on Worcester’s Urban/Poor Residents The Healthy Homes Initiative Who’s Responsible to Clean it Up Next Steps
- 3. Older, Neglected or AOMC neighborhoods The City’s Industrial Toxic Polluters Areas of High Vehicular/Train Traffic
- 4. Childhood lead exposure linked to adult crime Lead dust from vehicles using leaded gasoline has been linked to instances of aggravated assault two decades after exposure Toxic effects in nearly every organ in the body, including the brain, blood, kidneys, heart, and reproductive organs Health problems at blood lead levels as low as 5 µg/dL (OSHA's blood lead level recommendation is 40 µg/dL!)
- 5. • Older neglected properties • Poorly maintained properties found in AOMC
- 6. City of Worcester, MA Housing Data –Year Built, Currently <20% housing stock in compliance with EPA, HHS, DPH, DPS standards and recommendations Built 1970 6,153 +/-529 7.8% +/-0.7 Prior to 1978 to 1979 there was no Built 1960 +/-0.6 5,023 6.4% restriction as to to 1969 +/-441 how much lead Built 1950 +/-516 +/-0.7 7,882 10.0% was allowable to 1959 Built 1940 5,664 +/- 7.2% +/-0.6 for int. a/o ext. to 1949 492 residential Built 1939 38,983 +/- 49.6% +/-1.3 paints . or earlier 1,294
- 7. Top 5 Local Industrial Sources –
- 8. This corporate neighbor affects City residents living near and persons using these public facilities & bldgs- Kendrick Field (0.5 mi) Dodge Park (0.9 mi) Dodge Park has had 2 brown- fields remediated by the EPA Burncoat Park (2.4 mi) Nelson Place School Burncoat Middle School Burncoat High School Wawecus Road Elem’y Thorndyke Elem’y
- 9. This corporate neighbor affects our City’s residents living nearby and using these facilities around it - Kendrick Field (0.5 mi) Dodge Park (0.9 mi) Burncoat Park (2.4 mi) Nelson Place School Burncoat Middle School Burncoat High School Wawecus Road Elem’y Thorndyke Elem’y
- 10. This corporate neighbor affects City residents living nearby and using these public recreational & educational facilities- Kendrick Field (0.5 mi) Dodge Park (0.9 mi) Burncoat Park (2.4 mi) Nelson Place School Burncoat Middle School Burncoat High School Wawecus Road Elem’y Thorndyke Elem’y
- 11. This corporate neighbor affects our children and aged living - • Great Brook Valley • Curtis Apartments • Lincoln Village Apts. • Several Apt. Complexes 1-3 BR • Clark Street Developmental School • Wawecus Road Elem’y
- 12. This corporate neighbor affects our children and aged living - • Great Brook Valley • Curtis Apartments • Lincoln Village Apts. • Several Apt. Complexes 1-3 BR • Clark Street Developmental School • Wawecus Road Elem’y
- 13. How this operation affects our children and aged - 68 Gardner Street – University Park (0.4 mi) Beaver Brook (1.7 mi) Hadwen Park (1.9 mi) Coes Pond (1.9 mi)
- 14. HUD No. 07-62 (212) 264-1100 Established the Healthy Homes Initiative Program
- 15. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Super Fund Amendments and Reauthorization Acts (SARA)
- 16. INFORM THE MEDICAL & GREATER COMMUNITY •Awareness •Transparency of local •Treatment government responses Modalities to the TRI reports and •Advocate for monitoring of Stronger Local emissions by metal- enforcement by working, plastics, and the Local adhesive mfr.s and Emergency producers. Planning •Eliminate long delays Committee for LPAP services
Editor's Notes
- Areas of Minority Concentration is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as a district’s population being @ least 30% Hispanic and other poor and minority groups. Persons living in Black Hispanic Neighborhoods (BHN) e.g. Great Brook Valley, Plumley Village, Belmont Hill are exposed to airborne toxins that escape through faulty equipment of neighboring producer/manufacturers of plastics, adhesives, metal and concrete producers/processors. Lead is a major visible source of poison because of the peeling exterior paint of our tenements constructed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. You know the ones: on the corner of Austin & Newbury there’s a sight-full one whose exterior shedding has lead to the visible poisoning of the soil around the building and limp weed-grass scattered about the land surrounding this 3-Family house. Children play outside where their mothers/caregivers can keep an eye on them and at the park directly downwind from that house and several others on either side of Austin Street whose peeling lead paint flecks are poisonous to everyone who inhales there. This poison leeches into the underlying water aquifer and combines with the other pollutants collected from the heavily trafficked area by trucks (some carrying refrigerated and leaking their condensation onto our streets) and cars in the hot season, etc. Diesel’s of lead from old deteriorating lead paint in substandard dwellings. Black children experience the greatest number of new asthma patients in the U.S. across all ethnic groups including Latinos.Mold toxins in substandard and dilapidated housing are ambient but there has yet to be an agreed upon exposure rate at which the medical industry acknowledges the neuro-physiological impact on humans is linked to the spore count in their home environment.What we do know is that there has been a marked increase in the number of sleep apnea cases diagnosed over the past 10 years and the use of CPAPs amongst both children and adults has skyrocketed. Not all cases of sleep apnea are directly related to body fat.From the time poor children, who live in run-down sections of older industrial cities and towns, attend schools with outdoor recreational facilities which are downwind from the soot spewing mfrs smokestacks. There are currently no standards for air quality in schools or workplaces.Children engaging in sporting activities in the open-air fields are ingesting at a far greater rate, the ambient toxins from these manufacturing operations because they are breathing harder and require more oxygen.Twenty years from the time the baby-boomers’ children are born, and let’s not forget the boomers themselves and the drug culture of the 70’s from leaded gasoline and ethylene additives in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s became the drug-crazed counter-culturists – some of these behaviorsif not all, can be directly linked to the lead exposure these groups endured while growing up as children in the newly suburban affluent communities. Matters were made worse during this period of unregulated ambient toxins spewing out of manufacturing smokestacks in addition to the lower atmospheric contamination of leaded gasoline and the additive ethylene many ne’er do wells had added to their tanks for more power.
- IN USA TODAY 5/28/08: In what may be the strongest link yet between lead exposure and crime rates, … newly released new evidence, spanning more than 20 years, that draws a direct relationship between the amount of lead in a child's blood and the likelihood he or she will commit crimes as an adult.Now, researchers have collected data from as early as 1979 when pregnant women and their healthy babies had their blood drawn regularly at four Cincinnati medical clinics. By the time the children were 7, researchers had a complete portrait of lead levels.Nearly two decades later, the researchers tracked down 250 of the subjects, ages 19-24. Controlling for a host of factors, including parental IQ, education, income and drug use, the team found that the more lead in a child's blood from birth through age 7, the more likely he or she was to be arrested as an adult. The tie between high lead levels and violent crime was particularly strong.Research has shown before that lead has harmful effects on judgment, cognitive function and the ability to regulate behavior. "We need to be thinking about lead as a drug and a fairly strong one," says Kim Dietrich, a professor of environmental health at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and the principal investigator for the study in the journal Public Library of Science Medicine. "These kids have been exposed to this drug, chronically, since before birth.“Mother Jones: How Dangerous is the Lead in the Bullets? — By Sarah ZhangThu Jan. 3, 2013 12:33 PM PST The new report also finds OSHA's blood lead level recommendation of 40 µg/dL or lower to be too high. That limit hasn't changed since 1978, but subsequent research has found health problems at blood lead levels as low as 5 µg/dL. Lead is so damaging because it mimics calcium, an ion with essential roles everywhere in the body from bones to nerve cells. (It's especially dangerous for children with developing brains, which is why you hear so much about lead paint.) The report devotes more than 70 pages to detailing lead's many toxic effects in nearly every organ in the body, including the brain, blood, kidneys, heart, and reproductive organs."These kids have been exposed to this drug, chronically, since before birth."For nearly 50 years, researchers have known about the relationship between children's impulsivity and high levels of lead in their bodies. As recently as 2007, economist Rick Nevin tied violent crime rates to historic use of leaded gasoline. Fordham University School of Law criminologist Deborah Denno, who has studied the effects of lead, calls the findings' ties to adult criminal behavior "very important." Denno studied National Institutes of Health statistics of nearly 1,000 children in Philadelphia and found that a high blood lead level at 7 years old was among the strongest predictors that a child would have both learning difficulties and disciplinary problems in school. High blood lead also strongly predicted whether a child would have a juvenile or adult criminal record.Denno says Tuesday's data are newer than hers by 20 years. "It's still a huge problem," she says, "and it's still a huge problem among African-American communities and poorer neighborhoods."
- Older neglected residential properties, particularly non-owner occupied multi-family units, experience structural leaks from ill-fitting windows and damaged roof areas, as well as damage to the siding of these buildings due to neglect and wanton destruction.Unattended plumbing leaks from sinks, tubs, toilets and broken pipes, result in the growth of mold between the floor and sub-flooring as well as the air-space between the units and it’s absorbed into the drywall, plaster, support beams, etc. and grows, untreated. This gives rise to increasing spore counts that become ambient with the air that flows between the floors and walls of units and within the units themselves. These are ambient toxins that are visiting serious neuro-behavioral influence(s) on the residents of these neglected properties which we find to be the poor.Mold leads to neurobehavioral and pulmonary impairment in 205 adults with indoor exposure to molds compared to 100 exposed by chemicals. By Kilburn, Kaye H., Toxicology & Industrial Health, Oct.Nove2009, Vol. 25 Issue 9/10. p681-692, 3 Charts, 1 Graph; Abstract patients exposed at home to molds and mycotoxins and those exposed to chemicals (CE) have many similar symptoms of eye, nose, and throat irritation and poor memory, concentration and other neuro-behavioral dysfunctions.
- Data Source: American FactFinder Quick Facts, U.S. Census 201050% of Housing units in Worcester were constructed prior to 193931% of Housing Units in Worcester were constructed prior to 1979.81% of Worcester housing units contain lead-based paints and lead is also found in the soil outside.Child Lead Poisoning Prevention Program, Screening and Incidence Statistics by Community, Fiscal Year 2011: July 1, 2010 through June 30, 201117 children under the age of 3 have lead in their blood27 children from 6mos to 3 yrs. have lead in their blood.Over half of these children live in the older homes cited in the slide.
- Tuesday, January 29, 2013 Adrianne Appel, GoLocalWorcester Contributor “….Worcester area manufacturers sent 400 pounds of heavy metal compounds, much of it at least partially treated, to public treatment facilities.” “Companies try to avoid sending hazardous wastes to a toxic waste dump, which is expensive,” said Dwight Peavey, senior scientist at EPA New England. "More is being recycled, especially in these challenging economic times. The cost of transporting waste is going up and you want to get the waste into as small a quantity as possible," Peavey said.Worcester area companies sent 1.6 million pounds of chemicals to recyclers, and 525,000 pounds to energy recovery plants.They trucked about 638,000 pounds of chemicals to private facilities to be treated and made less toxic. (?)32,450 lbs. of toxic chemicals were released into the City of Worcester’s air in 2011.From the time poor children, who live in run-down sections of older industrial cities and towns, attend schools with outdoor recreational facilities which are downwind from the soot spewing mfrs smokestacks, they are being set up to become the under-caste of our society
- SAINT-GOBAIN ABRASIVES & Saint Gobain Ceramics & Plastics-1 NEW BOND ST, WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS 01606AsFugitive (Leakage containers) Air Emissions=4,830 lbsAs Point Source Air Emissions=11,584 lbsTotal On-site Disposal or Other Releases (Rlsd as vapors through ventilation stacks)=16,414 lbsTotal Off-site Disposal or Other Releases=1,035 lbsTotal On/Off-Site Disposal or Other Releases=17,449 lbsData Source: http://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/release_fac?p_view=STFA&trilib=TRIQ1&sort=_VIEW_&sort_fmt=1&state=25&county=All+counties&chemical=All+chemicals&industry=ALL&year=2011&tab_rpt=1&fld=TRIID&fld=NUMFA&fld=RELLBY&fld=TSFDSP&OTHDISPD=YToxic metabolic etiologies of Volatile Hydrocarbons: Ammonia, Methanol and Ethylene Glycol – Respiratory depression; Tachycardia, hypotension, Dysrhythmias, Myocarditis through inhalation with 80% hepatic metabolism and 20% loss through exhalation & urinary excretion.Dermal absorption may cause hyperventilation, pneumonitis, and respiratory depression. Responsible for epidemics of acute renal failure.Goldfrank’sToxicologic Emergencies, 2003 ed.CausticsMethanol affects memory, coordination and sensory perception, behavioral, and reasoning performance.Data Source: EPA Extramural Research ‘Final Report: Does Inhalation of Methanol Vapor Affect Human Neuro-behavior?’Phenol, Ethyl Glycol, Dichloromethane, Trichloroethane, Trimethylbenzene, Hydrochloric Acid etiology: Esophageal injuries, stricture (bronchial obstruction/stricture), asthma, esophageal perforation and complications of infection.Information Source: Goldfrank’sToxicologic Emergencies, 2003Affected neighborhoods – Greendale North & South, Great Brook Valley and Indian Lake. URL: http://www.city-data.com/nbmaps/neigh-Worcester-Massachusetts.html#N26 - will provide you with a visual of the city’s neighborhoods and demographical statistics.
- Caustic Toxin: Phenol is well absorbed (91% hepatic retention) by any route of exposure. Phenol or sulfur dioxide transfers to the ground as Cobalt Compounds which are known carcinogens.Phenol vapor weighs more than air such that if the on-site disposal method is to heat it up to release it as vapor, it poses a greater risk to the health of small children and older European immigrants who are of short height.Symptoms: Systemic Poisoning: phenol is corrosive and causes chemical burns at the contact site. So if your (dermal exposure) eyes, nose or throat is burning and you work @ this facility or a child or shorter adult living in the neighborhood of this facility you should inform your healthcare providers (otolaryngologist, ophthalmologist, endocrinologist, cardiologist, etc.) as to the presence of this lethal gas in your residential airspace. Damage to the nervous system is the primary cause of death from phenol poisoning. Renal failure, pigment changes to the skin and chronic exposure has also been correlated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease and insufficient blood supply to the heart in workers.Initial symptoms: may include sweating, nausea, excessive sweating, headache, dizziness, and ringing in the ears. Seizures, loss of consciousness, coma, respiratory depression. Central Nervois System: sulfur dioxide is a severe skin irritant causing stinging pain, redness, and blisters, (especially on mucous membranes) e.g. in the eyes, inside mouth, and the nose.Skin contact with escaping compressed gas or liquid sulfur dioxide can cause frostbite and irritation injury.Other symptoms – tachycardia (rapid heart beat), pulmonary edema, arrhythmia, anemia, hemolytic anemia, profuse sweating, hypotension (low blood pressure), diarrhea, vomiting and nausea.Data Source: Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry (ATSDR) accessed 2.19.2013
- Caustics: Trichloroethane, Ethylene Glycol and Ammonia are disposed of on-site to the tune of 1,500 lbs. Etiology: Respiratory depression, Hypotension and hypertension, tachycardia with 91% hepatic metabolism.Data Source: Goldfrank’sToxicologic Emergencies, 2003
- SAINT GOBAIN PERFORMANCE PLASTICS717 PLANTATION ST, WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS 01605Point Source Air Emissions=334Total On-site Disposal or Other Releases =334http://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/release_fac?p_view=STFA&trilib=TRIQ1&sort=_VIEW_&sort_fmt=1&state=25&county=All+counties&chemical=All+chemicals&industry=ALL&year=2011&tab_rpt=1&fld=TRIID&fld=NUMFA&fld=RELLBY&fld=TSFDSP&OTHDISPD=YEtiology of Toxins Released – Fugitive and On-Site DisposalCaustics: Toluene - A substantial database examining the effects of toluene in sub-chronic and chronic occupationally exposed humans exists. The weight-of-evidence from these studies indicates neurologic effects (i.e., impaired color vision, impaired hearing, decreased performance in neurobehavioral analysis, changes in motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity, headache, dizziness). Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK) – ibid and interference with neuronal transmission.Affected Neighborhoods– Greendale South, Great Brook Valley. URL: http://www.city-data.com/nbmaps/neigh-Worcester-Massachusetts.html#N26 - will provide you with a visual of the city’s neighborhoods and demographical statistics.
- Toluene Disposed of On-Site=500 lbs. Etiology: 80% hepatic metabolism Toxins Disposed through Fugitive On-site and off-site disposal:Trichloroethane, Methanol, Hydrochloric Acid, Xylene, and Phosphuric AcidsEtiology of Caustics: 80 and 91% hepatic metabolism, respiratory depression and hypotension, hypertension, renal failure andCancer.
- EDDINGTON THREAD MFG CO.68 GARDNER ST, WORCESTER MASSACHUSETTS 01610 (WORCESTER) AsFugitive Air Emissions = 1,729Point Source Air Emissions= 11,564 Total On-site Disposal or Other Releases =13,293Total Off-site Disposal or Other Releases =0Total On- and Off-site Disposal or Other Releases=13,2930Caustic Gas: Ammonia - a strong, colorless gas when dissolved in water is called liquid ammonia.Symptoms: Airways, lungs, and chest – cough, chest pain (severe), chest tightness, difficulty breathing and wheezing. Eyes, ear, nose, mouth and throat: tearing and burning of eyes, temporary blindness, severe throat pain, mouth pain and lip swelling. Heart and blood: rapid, weak pulse, collapse and shock. Nervous system: altered mental state, fever and restlessness. Skin: Bluish-colored lips and fingernails, severe burns if contact is longer than a few minutes. Stomach and gastrointestinal tract: severe stomach pain and vomiting.Data Source: Medline Plus US. National Library of Medicine NIHAffected neighborhoods: Main South, The Arts District and Green IslandData Source: http://iaspub.epa.gov/triexplorer/release_fac?p_view=STFA&trilib=TRIQ1&sort=_VIEW_&sort_fmt=1&state=25&county=All+counties&chemical=All+chemicals&industry=ALL&year=2011&tab_rpt=1&fld=TRIID&fld=NUMFA&fld=RELLBY&fld=TSFDSP&OTHDISPD=Y
- Worcester Green & Healthy Homes and Neighborhoods Initiative is a recipient of a Level I CARE cooperative agreement. Healthy Homes and Neighborhoods (HHN) will be convened by the Regional Environmental Council, Inc. (REC). Regional Environmental Council, Inc. is the Lead Paint Hazard Control/Green & Healthy Homes Initiative program for the City of Worcester.Contact REC Worcester @ 508-799-9147 for assistance in determining if there’s lead or mold in your dwelling or Pb in the soil around it. In a recent environmental justice assessment of the state (Faber and Krieg 2005), which analyzed the extent to which communities were overburdened through exposure to landfills, hazardous waste sites, trash transfer stations, incinerators, polluting industry, power plants, and cumulative environmental hazardsWorcester was #1 (worst) in total point ranking for cities in Massachusetts. A variety of preventable health and safety hazards threaten children every year. The funding announced today includes nearly $5 million in demonstration grants to identify and eliminate housing conditions that contribute to children's disease and injury, such as asthma, mold exposure, and carbon monoxide contamination.Affected Neighborhoods: Main South, Piedmont, Bell Hill, Oak Hill and Quinsigamond Village. HUD is also investing $2 million to support scientific research into new ways of identifying and eliminating health hazards in housing. The Main South, Piedmont, Bell Hill, Oak Hill and Quinsigamond Village neighborhoods correspond with the city’s federally designated neighborhood revitalization strategy areas(NRSA). These vulnerable neighborhoods have a long history of air, water, and land pollution. Interviews with residents and CBOs indicate that community members daily confront built environment, economic and household conditions associated with a range of negative health outcomes, disorders and learning disabilities.
- BOSTON - The U.S. Dept. of Housing & Urban DevelopmentFriday, March 23, 2012 - Housing and Urban Development (HUD) today awarded $2,480,000 to the City of Worcester to conduct a wide range of activities intended to protect children and families from potentially dangerous lead-based paint and other home health and safety hazards.…will clean up lead and other health hazards in high-risk homes, train workers in lead safety methods, and increase public awareness about childhood lead poisoning. Lead is a known toxin that can impair children's development and have effects lasting into adulthood. Since FY 08 the City has received $4.8M in LPAP funds through the State office of Hsg & Cm’y Dev for lead abatement in NRSA designated neighborhoods/residential properties. At no time were any of these funds to have been used for moderate income households or for any other dwelling type other than the older properties where poor black, latino and whites live. Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) provides that in the event the responsible party or parties can not be identified for the source of the environmental damage this and the Super Fund Amendments and Reauthorization Acts provide that the federal government, through a tax collected from industrial polluters, will cover the cost of remediating the damage to the environment – land, water.There is currently no provision for addressing the health impacts on humans except exposed workers who face an uphill battle with employers’ insurance companies to process their claims.The general public is out of luck. This may explain why there is 8% unemployment of Worcester residents and disparities in the educational attainment levels. Employers are aware of the health impact of these toxins on the behavior and overall physiology of persons living in mixed use zone areas. The EPA only require polluters who discharge >500 lbs of toxins to file voluntary reports. Not all industrial polluters in Worcester are compliant with this requirement.What side of town you live in takes on any deeper meaning in this context – doesn’t it?
- Worcester is an old, industrial city and as such our soil, waterways, tenement-housing, worker houses, elementary school buildings particularly, are in poor environmental, structural and aesthetic condition.In order to reduce the incidence of SIDS, the increase in infant mortality rates, the disproportionate increase in new cases of asthma and COPD amongst Blacks and Latinos, and to reduce the abbreviated life spans of these groups and poor whites in the City of Worcester, we as a community of educators, scientists, social justice stewards/champions, public servants and servants of God, must see to it that our local emergency planning committee and Inspectional services department working in tandem with the State Department of Environmental Protection and institutions of higher learning work together with our state’s producers and manufacturers of goods to identify compounds, glues/adhesives that are environmentally safe or encourage them to bear the cost of proper off-site disposal as they should in order to be ethically and socially acceptable to remain in our communities.The findings from this research gives the phrase ‘what side of town do you come from’ a whole new meaning, doesn’t it?There is a reason for Worcester’s high illiteracy rate amongst its working age population and 8% unemployment: environmental impact.