Diesel emissions present ‘greatest cancer risk’
Above: Cloudy skies over Newark Airport.
Lisa Jackson of the DEP said yesterday that diesel emissions around shipping ports and airports must be reduced, because they cause health problems and “present the greatest cancer risk in New Jersey,” the Bergen Record is reporting.
Jackson made her comments at a public hearing of the Clean Air Council in Trenton, which included environmentalists and advocates for the trucking and shipping industries.
She also said communities near Newark Airport have the highest rate of asthma-related deaths, according to the Record. Officials from the Air Transport Association countered with this: The air quality around Newark Airport is better than it is around other airports. They also said air fuel emissions make up just 4 percent of Newark’s emissions, lower than the national average: 6 percent. Congestion pricing, anyone? Mayor Bloomberg’s plan may have given New Jersey the shaft, but it could have reduced pollution.
Particles in traffic fumes have been linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease, and, as of last month (officially, anyway), changes in brain activity. In March, Dutch researchers published a study that said inhaling diesel exhaust triggers a stress response that may have damaging, long-term effects on brain function and information processing.
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