To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Title: High Mortality Rates Point to Web of Pollution, Poverty, Study Says URL: http://www.pslgroup.com/dg/31A2A.htm Doctor's Guide July 23, 1997
BALTIMORE, MD. -- July 23, 1997 -- A two-year study of environmental and public health concerns in the neighborhoods of South and Southwest Philadelphia, in the United States, found that disease and death rates, although elevated in the two study areas, were similar to those in other post-industrial cities where poverty is endemic. The data showed clearly that mortality rates in South and Southwest Philadelphia were rising, even as national environmental laws over the past 20 years were steadily improving Philadelphia's air and water quality, as well as reducing the pollutants being released to the environment. Lead author Thomas Burke, associate professor, Health Policy and Management, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, noted that this combination -- improving environmental quality juxtaposed with increasing illness and mortality -- is consistent with what is happening in economically depressed urban areas nationally. The Philadelphia study was initiated as a result of community concerns about the impact of pollution on their health. According to Nadia Shalauta, MS, project director, the study was truly unique because it was shaped by the community members and involved participation of all of the relevant regulatory agencies. Funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the study was not designed to investigate whether a relationship existed between specific environmental sources of pollutants and disease in the community, but to provide a public health and environmental baseline for the environmental and economic redevelopment of South and Southwest Philadelphia. The top five causes of death in the study area were heart disease, cancer, stroke, unintentional injuries including drug overdoses, and influenza/pneumonia. Average annual cancer rates in South Philadelphia were approximately 40 percent higher than the national rate. Overall cancer rates were also increasing in the study area, as they are nationally in poor urban areas. In the areas studied, this was largely due to an increase in lung cancer, which was the single largest cause of cancer deaths. The good news, according to Shalauta, is that many of the reported illnesses and deaths are preventable through smoking prevention and cessation, behavioral and dietary change and improved preventative health care. The study also tallied up numbers and types of pollution sources for the entire city of Philadelphia, and found them to be comparable to those in 25 other Northeastern cities. "The poorest neighborhoods generally have the poorest health, a fact that may say more about the impact of economic and demographic factors -- poverty, access to medical care, and personal dietary habits -- than environmental ones," said Dr. Burke. Over the past three decades, South and Southwest Philadelphia saw numerous businesses close, many people lose their jobs, and population decline by 25 percent, leaving a concentration of poor and elderly. This demographic shift, which has also taken place in other eastern cities, explained why mortality rates are higher than average in poor urban areas across the nation. Dr. Burke pointed out, however, that the study's results did not invalidate the environmental concerns of the two Philadelphia communities. The experts found neighborhoods rife with waste disposal companies, a Superfund site, oil tank farms, petroleum refineries, two dozen leaky underground tanks, as well as hundreds of businesses such as auto shops and dry cleaners which emit air pollutants or generate hazardous waste. Motor vehicles, however, were by far the largest source of regulated air pollutants in the study area. Cumulative impacts of these sources are not well understood and cannot be disentangled from the effects of poverty, behavior, and genetics. However, according to the researchers, improving the environment and preventing exposures are an essential component of any effort to improve public health. The Hopkins researchers recommended further attempts to measure key pollutants in the area's environment, the establishment of educational programs for disease prevention, an environmental "report card," and a guidebook for citizens explaining which environmental issues are handled by which state, federal, and city agencies. The study forged new links among community, industry, and government agencies, and the researchers believe that this will aid implementation of their recommendations. Dr. Burke said he hoped that the completion of the study would not mark the end, but rather the beginning of new efforts to understand and improve the environment, and reduce the incidence of disease in the community. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1999 P\S\L Consulting Group Inc. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of P\S\L content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of P\S\L. 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