Researchers at the University of New York at Albany have found a link between respiratory dis eases and New York state residents who live in or near hazardous waste sites containing persistent organic pollutants (POPs). Their report was published in the December 2004 issue of Environmental Toxicology and Pharmacology (vol. 18, issue 3, available at ScienceDirect.com).
The researchers analyzed hospitalization statistics in 1595 state zip codes – 213 (with a 2000 Census population of some 2.8 million) containing or abutting a hazardous waste site containing POPs, including polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and persistent pesticides, and 1382 (with a 2000 population of 4.7 million) identified as clean sites. The POP-contaminated sites were identified by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the International Joint Commission, which advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on issues relating to boundary waters.
To eliminate other factors that contribute to respiratory diseases, such as income, excess smoking, and lack of exercise, the researchers also studied a subset – 78 zip codes – of residents living in or near POP-contaminated sites along the Hudson River, from Hudson Falls to Manhattan. This area has fewer smokers, higher per capita income, and better diet and exercise habits than much of the rest of the state. Researchers discovered that residents of this area were hospitalized for respiratory infections more often than people not living in or near POP-contaminated sites.
Chest x-rays such as this illustrate the damages of respiratory disease.
Altogether, researchers found that hospitalization rates due to chronic bronchitis and other infectious respiratory diseases were about 20% higher for residents of POP-related zip codes than for the general New York state population. Specifically, results showed statistically significant increases in pneumonia, influenza, and chronic bronchitis in men and women aged 45 to 74, and in unclassified chronic airway obstructions in men and women over 45.
“These observations show us that the higher frequency of respiratory dis ease cannot be explained by the usual suspects of bad diet and smoking,” said David O. Carpenter, one of the study authors and director of the university’s Institute for Health and the Environment. “It strengthens our hypothesis that populations living by the Hudson are breathing in PCBs, which causes their immune systems to malfunction, leading to more infections.
“It is usually thought that exposure to POPs comes primarily from eating contaminated fish and other animal products, but our observations cannot be explained by different patterns of ingestion,” Carpenter said. “Our results suggest that simply living near a contaminated site increases the risk of exposure to POPs, and that this increases the risk of infections as a result of suppression of the immune system.”
In an earlier report, Carpenter showed that hospitalization for five infectious childhood diseases was 30% greater in POP- contaminated areas than in clean zip codes. And another study shows that Dutch infants exposed to dioxins and PCBs have elevated incidence of recurrent middle-ear infections and chicken pox, and a lower prevalence of allergic reactions [Weisglas-Kuperus et al. (2000) Environmental Health Perspectives 108: 1203-1207].
For more information, contact Carpenter at [email protected]. edu.
Copyright Water Environment Federation Apr 2005
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