THE LOWER LIFE EXPECTANCY AROUND SUPERFUND SITES
For many years studies have showed that distant levels of pollution are enough to cause noticeable health effects linked to a higher risk of cancer. So how does this affect communities that live closer to the source of pollution?
Census data collected in 2018 by researchers from Universities of Houston and Texas, concluded that Superfund sites will cause you to die earlier. Superfund sites are designated community locations that are given permission to pollute by the EPA. With this green light the responsible parties are mandated to clean up the mess. However too often, spills from manufacturing plants have resulted with improper disposal of hazardous waste leaving poor, indigenous and communities of color as the victims.
In these areas, 60% of these communities are prone to wildfires, flooding along with having 15 months of lowered life expectancy compared to the general population. Cleaning up these waste sites often take decades to revert back to normal, which causes a present and future problem. Currently researchers are try quantifying the damage that Superfund sites caused to communities living nearby maintained by the federal government.
Chief Editor | Creative Director
