Hazardous Waste Sites and Human Health.

Carpenter, DO, Huang, X, Kouznetsova, M, Lessner LL, Seergev, A, Scherbatykh, I

Institute for Health and the Environment, University at Albany, Rensselaer, NY 12144

 

There are nearly 900 hazardous waste sites in New York identified and characterized by the USEPA, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the International Joint Commission.  We have investigated the relationship between living near hazardous waste sites and hospitalization for several chronic diseases.  In New York every hospital must report all of diseases diagnosed in every inpatient upon discharge to the state Department of Health.  This data was available to us with information on age, sex, race, zip code of residence and up to 15 diagnoses for each inpatient for the years 1993-2000.  We determined the zip code(s) and the major contaminants present in each waste site, and identified three categories of zip codes: those containing waste sites with persistent organic pollutants (POPs), those containing waste site that did not contain POPs (Other wastes) and those without any waste sites (Clean).  We then matched the zip codes of patients' residence to the hospitalization rates per 100,000 population for acute myocardial infarction, stroke, hypertension and diabetes after adjustment for socio-economic status, age, race and sex, using negative binomial regression.  There was a statistically significant elevation is hospitalization rates of 20% for acute myocardial infarction, 15% for stroke, 19% for hypertension and 19% for diabetes in POPs as compared to clean zip codes.  Since behavioral factors such as smoking, exercise and diet influence rates of these diseases as well, we studied a subset of zip codes along the PCB-contaminated Hudson River, where income is higher, smoking is less, people are more active and eat more fruits and vegetables.  Here the elevations in rates of hospitalization in POPs as compared to clean zip codes were 39% for acute myocardial infarction, 20% for stroke, 14% for hypertension and 32% for diabetes.  Therefore, the usual risk factors cannot explain the elevations in these diseases among individuals living near POPs waste sites.  Although the exposure assessment in this study is crude, the results are consistent with the hypothesis that living near a POPs waste site constitutes a risk of exposure (probably via inhalation) and a consequent elevation is risk of these chronic diseases.