The Brio Superfund site in Friendswood, Texas was one of the Superfund sites that remained submerged after Hurricane Harvey. A new study has found that living near hazardous waste sites can lower life expectancy.
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- In general, living near a Superfund site shortens life expectancy by two months.
- Life expectancy can be shortened by 15 months in deprived neighborhoods.
- About 60% of landfills could be affected by natural disasters, spreading pollutants.
The adverse health effects of living near a hazardous waste site have long been documented, now researchers have calculated how much these sites can shorten life expectancy.
Life expectancy in communities near landfills could be reduced by more than a year, according to a new study from the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston.
The study, published in Nature Communications, looked at censuses near nearly 12,000 sites, not just the 1,300 Superfund sites on the Environmental Protection Agency’s National Priorities List.
It included identified Superfund sites “currently on the list, proposed to be listed, removed from the list, waiting to be included, and sites not controlled by the EPA.”
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These sites exist because of “hazardous waste that is dumped, left in the open, or otherwise improperly managed,” the EPA said, including manufacturing or processing plants, mines and landfills.
Because many people living near these locations have greater socio-demographic disadvantages, the analysis also looked at factors such as age, gender, marital status and income.
“The existence of a Superfund site reduces the value of land and properties, which means that poorer communities are more likely to live near a site than richer people,” said Amin Kiaghadi of UT’s Oden Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences. Austin and lead author of the study. a press release.
“Poorer populations tend to have less insurance coverage, poorer nutrition and are more sensitive to underlying health problems – making them even more vulnerable to the potentially harmful chemicals coming from Superfund sites,” said Kiaghadi.
The analysis showed an overall decrease of more than two months in life expectancy for people living near a dangerous waste location, but combined with the socio-demographic disadvantages, life expectancy decreased by about 15 months.
“It was a bit 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 being socioeconomically constrained would make (the effects of the waste location) worse.”
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The study also pointed to a 2019 report from the Government Accountability Office that stated that about 60% of Superfund sites managed by the EPA could potentially face natural hazards such as wildfires and floods.
The researchers examined the impact of flooding, which could transport pollutants from Superfund sites and potentially affect neighborhoods beyond the edge of the landfills.
“If you add flooding, there will be additional or secondary effects that could potentially be exacerbated by a changing future climate,” Rifai said in a press release. “The long-term effect of the flood and repeated exposure has an effect that can transcend generations.”
Rifai told The Guardian, “You may think you’ve already built with a problem (in mind), but natural danger can change that picture. You may have to go back and rethink what you’ve done and make sure it’s hardened against natural hazards so you don’t have ongoing exposure or emergent exposure. “
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