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Pollution Poses High Cancer Risk

Residents in Indiana’s heavily industrialized areas - particularly Lake County and Indianapolis - face an elevated risk of developing cancer from breathing air pollution, according to a new federal analysis.

The study released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is the agency’s most ambitious look to date at cancer risks from breathing chemicals.

In its National Air Toxics Assessment, the EPA studied 133 chemicals emitted in 1999 by businesses and traffic. It outlines lifetime cancer risks in states, counties and census tracts.

The EPA determines risk by calculating how many additional cancer cases could result if a million people in a particular area were exposed equally to the same level of air pollution 24 hours a day for 70 years.

The agency says any lifetime risk greater than 1 in a million could be cause for concern.

Indiana’s average risk was 33 in a million; nationally, the EPA estimates that most people have a cancer risk between 1 and 25 in a million.

Dr. Stephen Jay, chairman of the Indiana University School of Medicine’s department of public health, said the National Air Toxics Assessment shows that most Hoosiers live in areas where air pollution elevates their risk of developing cancer.

The risk “comes down to a question of human health on the one hand and the cost and trouble” of controlling pollution, Jay said. “It’s a trade-off here.”

The report found that low-income residents who live in highly industrialized areas are at highest risk of developing cancer.

It ranked Lake County 38th nationally out of more than 3,000 counties with an average cancer risk of 64 in a million.

Northwest Indiana has always been burdened with high rates of air pollution because the area contains steel mills and industries that emit pollution, said Carolyn Marsh, an evironmentalist and member of the Lake Michigan Calumet Advisory Council.

Despite a decline in the number of steel mills and the emphasis on environmental consciousness, she said Lake County’s air quality has declined due to growing motor traffic.

“There’s more noise pollution, there’s odor pollution and I’m noticing air pollution,” Marsh said. “You can hardly breathe here. Indiana will use the EPA’s analysis to help focus pollution-reduction efforts on certain neighborhoods or chemicals.

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