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Report - USA - Port pollution spreads risk of cancer to inland areas
Report by Air Resources Board says diesel emissions from ports raise risk of illness up to 15 miles away. Ships get most of the blame
Torrance,CA,USA -Daily Breeze/Copley News Service, by Alison Shackelford Hewitt -Oct 07, 2005: -- Diesel emissions from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are raising the risk of cancer more than 15 miles away, a draft study from the California Air Resources Board found... calculates that port-produced diesel particulate matter, primarily from ships, causes 29 premature deaths each year... Overall, ships cause 73 percent of the port's pollution... The study found that "hotelling" ships -- boats that run their engines while unloading cargo -- produce 20 percent of the unhealthy particulate matter at the ports, making it the single greatest cause of port pollution... Within the boundaries of the ports, trucks caused 2 percent of the pollution, and trains cause 1 percent... Altogether, the ports produce 1,760 tons of diesel particulate matter, and 965 tons of it come from the Port of Los Angeles. The study predicts that in communities close to the ports, 500 out of 1 million people will get cancer solely from port pollution... When looking at the full 2 million population in the 20-square-mile study area, the cancer risk goes down, but the report still calculates that 100 people in that area will get cancer from the ports... The study also determines that the pollution causes 750 asthma attacks and 6,600 days of work lost each year... ARB officials hope to use the information to develop a port-emission reduction plan, in part by expanding on tactics already beginning to be used by the ports, such as having docked ships plug into electrical power sources, using cleaner fuels, and retrofitting big-rig trucks to burn toxins released by fuel before they escape into the air.
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