The Brio Superfund site in Friendswood, Texas, was one of the Superfund sites that was flooded after Hurricane Harvey. A new study has found that living near hazardous waste sites can reduce life expectancy.
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- In general, living near a Superfund site reduces life expectancy by two months.
- In disadvantaged neighborhoods, life expectancy can be cut by 15 months.
- About 60% of waste sites could be affected by natural disasters, which can spread contaminants.
The negative effects on life near a hazardous waste site have long been documented, and researchers have calculated how much these sites can shorten life expectancy.
In communities near landfills, life expectancy can be reduced by more than a year, according to a new study by the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston.
The study, published in Nature Communications, looked at census tracts near nearly 12,000 sites, not just 1,300 Superfund sites on the Environmental Protection Agency’s list of national priorities.
It included Superfund sites identified “currently on the list, proposed to be on the list, removed from the list, waiting to become part of the list and sites not supervised by the EPA.”
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These sites exist because of “hazardous waste dumped, left in the open or mismanaged,” according to the EPA. These include factories or processing plants, mines and landfills.
Because many people living near these sites have greater sociodemographic disadvantages, the analysis also examined factors such as age, gender, marital status, and income.
“The existence of a Superfund site reduces the values of land and property, which means that poorer communities are more likely to live near a site than richer people,” said Amin Kiaghadi of the Oden Institute for Engineering and Computer Science and Computer Science in UT Austin. a press release.
“Poorer populations tend to have lower insurance coverage, a poorer quality diet and are more susceptible to the underlying health conditions – making them even more vulnerable to potentially harmful chemicals from the sites Superfund, ”said Kiaghadi.
The analysis showed an overall decrease of more than two months in life expectancy for people living near a hazardous waste site, but, combined with the socio-demographic disadvantages, life expectancy decreased by about 15 months.
“It was a little surprising and worrying,” Hanadi S. Rifai, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Houston, who led the study with Kiaghadi, told The Guardian. “We weren’t sure if the fact that you’re being challenged socio-economically would make the effects of the waste site worse.”
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The study also indicated a 2019 Government Accountability Office report, which stated that approximately 60% of EPA-managed Superfund sites could be affected by natural hazards, such as fires and floods.
The researchers looked at the impact of the floods, which could carry contaminants from Superfund sites and affect neighborhoods beyond the edge of landfills.
“When you add floods, there will be side effects or side effects that can be exacerbated by future climate change,” Rifai said in a press release. “The long-term effect of floods and repetitive exposure has an effect that can transcend generations.”
Rifai told The Guardian: “You may think you have already built with a problem (in mind), but a natural danger can change that image. You may need to go back and rethink what you have done and make sure it is reinforced against natural hazards so that you do not have continuous or emerging exposure. ”
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