On Wednesday the Environmental Protection Agency released a disturbing report showing areas of the Fan and West of the Boulevard neighborhoods with some of the worst air quality in the nation. Census tract 405 (Boulevard/Stuart to Boulevard/Broad) and tract 402 (Boulevard to I95) are among the top 600 neighborhoods in the nation for toxic air pollutants.
The Associated Press reports:
The levels of 80 cancer-causing substances released by automobiles, factories and other sources in these areas exceed a 100 in 1 million cancer risk. That means that if 1 million people breathed air with similar concentrations over their lifetime, about 100 additional people would be expected to develop cancer because of their exposure to the pollution.The average cancer risk across the country is 36 in 1 million, according to the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment, which will be released by the EPA on Wednesday.
According to the recently released report from the EPA based on the 2002 National Assessment the 405 census tract has an average risk of 119 in a million, while census tract 402 has a risk of 107 in a million.
"If we are in between 10 in 1 million and 100 in 1 million we want to look more deeply at that. If the risk is greater than 100 in 1 million, we don't like that at all ... we want to investigate that risk and do something about it," said Kelly Rimer, an environmental scientist with the EPA, in an interview with The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Other neighborhoods along the Boulevard corridor show an elevated risk of cancer according to the study but were markedly lower than those located closer to Interstate 95/64.
Another EPA study on non-cancer causing pollutants reveals almost all census tracts in the area have higher than normal concentrations of respiratory irritants.
Read More From The Associated Press On This Report
View The 2002 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment from the EPA
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