Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Cancer Risk Found for People under Flight Track

Aug 27, 2000

Study: Cancer danger rises around O'Hare

August 27, 2000

BY ROBERT C. HERGUTH CHICAGO SUN-TIMES TRANSPORTATION REPORTER

Adding weight to the long-held suspicions of those living under flight paths and near runways, a new study suggests that the risk of getting cancer is higher in areas near O'Hare Airport because of toxic pollutants spewed by
aircraft.

The study also found that airport-related health risks apparently extend far beyond the suburbs circling O'Hare to the North Shore, Lake County and a large chunk of Chicago.

``In layman's terms, this found that the additional cancer risk created by O'Hare emissions alone was way above what are considered acceptable public health goals,'' said Joe Karaganis, an attorney for Park Ridge, one of
four noise-weary towns to fund the first-of-its-kind study, which will be released today.

``It also shows that the areas of health risk ... created by O'Hare extend well beyond the areas near O'Hare and traditionally thought to be
impacted,'' Karaganis said.

The study did not chart cancer cases. Rather, it calculated possible health risks using O'Hare pollution levels from a previous report financed by the City of Chicago, which owns and operates O'Hare.

While not dismissing the new study, a city aviation spokeswoman said Chicago stands behind two earlier studies showing that O'Hare is not the major cause of pollution in the area.

The authors of the new study, Princeton, N.J.-based Environ Corp. and Elmhurst-based Mostardi-Platt Associates, used computer modeling to
determine how far those toxic chemicals would travel with certain wind speeds and directions and the levels of concentration at the end of the
travel. The consultants then applied their figures to federal tables that estimate health risks based on concentrations. Some air testing also was conducted.

The document shows that O'Hare ``is the No. 1 toxic polluter in the state of Illinois,'' Karaganis said.

The pollution and risk levels were so high, as far away as Waukegan, that federal and state environmental agencies are supposed to try to reduce contaminants within the affected area, he said.

Neighborhoods along O'Hare's ``fenceline'' were most dramatically affected by toxic emissions and therefore had a higher cancer risk, the study
found. ``Hypothetical lifetime incremental cancer risks associated with concentrations measured at the airport fenceline are approximately fivefold
higher than the cancer risks associated with `background' air quality in Naperville,'' which isn't near O'Hare, the study found.

The most prominent chemicals near the airport are in aircraft emissions, including aldehydes, benzene and naphthalene.
Also affected are many communities to the north, east and northeast of O'Hare because winds often come from the south and west. ``The risk
extends farther than was previously known,'' although it's smaller than in towns
closer to O'Hare, Karaganis said.

The study says that ``O'Hare air toxic emissions alone cause cancer risks to exceed the federal health goal of 1 cancer in 1 million people in 98
Chicago area communities including the city of Chicago--covering an area of approximately 1,000 square miles.''

Those towns include communities nowhere near O'Hare, such as Long Grove, Kenilworth and Cicero.

``I think people should be concerned by this. I don't think they should be frightened,'' Karaganis said. ``But they should be asking their public officials why this hasn't been addressed before, and what's going to be done about this.''

If the same results came from a chemical plant or some factory in the private sector, regulators would pounce on them, Karaganis charged. But
the Illinois and U.S. Environmental Protection Agencies have a bad habit of ignoring airports, he said.

U.S. EPA spokesman Mick Hans said: ``We don't have anything to say about the new Park Ridge study because we haven't seen it yet.''

Dennis McMurray, an IEPA spokesman, said four pollution monitors were installed in late June in Schiller Park, Bensenville, the Southwest Side
and Northbrook, thanks to a grant secured by state Sen. Dave Sullivan (R-Park Ridge). Results should start pouring in this fall, McMurray said, adding he hasn't seen the new study.

The city downplayed the findings of the new report. Chicago aviation spokeswoman Monique Bond pointed to two 1999 studies overseen by KM Chng
Environmental Inc., which was paid $200,000 by the city. The documents, one of which was tapped for data by the Park Ridge consultants, concluded
that O'Hare isn't the major cause of air contamination in the area. Rather, trucks, cars and factories are largely to blame, the city studies said.

Planes, one of the city's studies found, emit only 1.6 percent of the ozone-promoting volatile organic compounds around O'Hare. Also, aircraft
are responsible for less than 2.5 percent of the benzene, which is known to cause cancer.

``Basically, if you remove O'Hare from the picture, then most of the pollution, which comes from vehicles, industry and railroads, would
remain,'' Bond said.

Unlike the city's studies, Park Ridge's effort analyzed only O'Hare emissions, most of which stem from airplanes, Karaganis said. The new
report also suggests that Chicago's report ``may substantially understate both the quantity and types of air toxic emissions from O'Hare.''

Demetrios Moschandreas, a chemical and environmental engineering professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology, has not seen the new study, but told of its findings, he said: ``It's a study that should be looked at very
carefully. I don't recall of a similar study at any airport'' in the United States.

An Evanston resident, he was not concerned that his community, according to the Park Ridge study, faced the possibility of two airport-related cancer cases in a million, twice the federal health goal.
``A lot depends on meteorological conditions and emissions,'' he said.
``But the emissions must have been out of this world to affect Waukegan.''

Helen Murray, a former Park Ridge resident now living in Des Plaines, one of the other towns funding the new study, said she ``absolutely believes'' the findings.

``I know people who get that black sooty stuff all over their yard furniture,'' she said.

From Aviation Watch.
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