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EPA releases cancer risk data from air pollution |
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Tuesday, 23 June 2009 23:58 |
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EPA recently released a huge amount of detailed data about baseline cancer risk from carcinogenic air pollution. According to USA Today: The results, compiled by the Environmental Protection Agency, represent the most sweeping analysis to date of the state of the nation's air. The analysis is based on emissions from 2002, the latest year for which the EPA had detailed estimates of pollution from across the nation. Called the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment, or NATA, the study is used by the EPA to identify parts of the country where residents could face the greatest health threats from air pollution... Almost 2.2 million people lived in neighborhoods where pollution raised the risk of developing cancer to levels the government generally considers to be unacceptable. There, toxic chemicals were significant enough that people who breathed the air throughout their lives faced an extra 100-in-1 million risk of getting cancer...
Pollution threats are still less pronounced than risks such as smoking, says John Walke, clean air director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. Even so, the assessment "shows we have a problem we should expect government to solve by reducing toxic air pollution, because it makes a lot of people sick."
For the Southeast Merced census tract, the baseline cancer risk in 2002 was 29 in one million. The Air District says that local cancer risk generated by the distribution center alone "could be well over 10 in a million" - that is, if the health risk assessment in the Environmental Impact Report was performed competently. This means that in Southeast Merced, it's likely that 29 people out of one million equally exposed people would contract cancer if exposed continuously (24 hours per day) to the specific concentration over 70 years (an assumed lifetime). This would be an excess cancer risk that is in addition to those cancer cases that would normally occur in an unexposed population of one million people. The distribution center would dramatically increase cancer risk in Southeast Merced, especially for homes and schools near its truck route. |
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SWAT comments on the proposed Wal-Mart Distribution Center Draft Environmental Impact Report |
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Tuesday, 28 April 2009 11:20 |
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Click here to read comments submitted by the Merced Stop Wal-Mart Action Team on April 27 regarding the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center. |
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African-American truck drivers settle discrimination lawsuit against Wal-Mart for $17.5 million |
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Monday, 23 February 2009 15:41 |
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via the Wall Street Journal: Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to pay $17.5 million to settle a class action lawsuit accusing the world's largest retailer of discriminating against African-Americans in recruitment and hiring of truck drivers for its private fleet. The company also agreed to priority job placements for 23 of the plaintiffs who submit approved claim forms, provide direct notice of all future job opportunities to all interested members of the class-action suit, establish benchmark hiring goals so future hires are proportionate by race to the composition of applicants, select a diversity recruiter, and improve its recruitment efforts and advertising aimed at African-Americans.
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Ask the Air District to protect Southeast Merced's health! |
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Sunday, 12 April 2009 19:27 |
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Take action to support Southeast Merced residents! Ask the Air District to conduct a full health risk assessment and protect us from the distribution center's local air quality impacts! Click here to send an e-mail to Air District head Seyed Sadredin Background: The Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Wal-Mart distribution center was released on February 25, over three years after it was first announced. The EIR says that if operational, trucks using the facility would dump 72 tons per year of ozone-forming nitrogen oxides and 33 tons per year of particulate (soot). Both can make respiratory problems and asthma worse, but local exposure to diesel soot can cause respiratory problems, heart disease, cancer and early death. It's serious. Before issuing Wal-Mart a permit to pollute, the Air District will decide whether Wal-Mart will reduce their actual emissions, or pay a fee to fund Air District programs in other parts of the Valley. This voluntary agreement between the Air District and Wal-Mart to reduce these emissions to a less than significant level must be in place before the Merced City Council can vote on the project. We're asking that: - The Air District conduct a full Health Risk Assessment so we understand the real cancer and health risks that the project will cause.
- The Air District do everything in its power in this agreement to protect the health of southeast Merced residents directly affected by this project.
Sound reasonable? The Air District needs to know you care! Click here to send an e-mail to Air District head Seyed Sadredin |
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Draft Environmental Impact Report to be released Wednesday Feb. 25 |
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Tuesday, 17 February 2009 15:53 |
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The City of Merced mailed the following notice to the public on Feb. 13. PUBLIC RELEASE OF DRAFT ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT FOR
WAL-MART DISTRIBUTION CENTER
The City will be releasing the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the proposed Wal-Mart Distribution Center for its 60-day public review, beginning on Wednesday, February 25, 2009, and ending on Monday, April 27, 2009. City staff will be available to answer questions about the public review process. This is NOT a public hearing and no public testimony will be taken, but the public is invited to attend. |
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