Lifelong Washington County residents face less of a cancer risk from the air they breathe than the rest of the state and nation, according to data released Wednesday from the Environmental Protection Agency.
The information culled from 2002 records, the latest year information was available, showed millions of people living in nearly 600 neighborhoods across the country are breathing concentrations of toxic air pollutants that put them at a much greater risk of contracting cancer.
In those nearly 600 neighborhoods, the cancer risk is 100 in a million, meaning that if 1 million people breathed air with similar concentrations over their lifetime, about 100 additional people would be expected to develop cancer because of their exposure to the pollution.
Los Angeles led the nation with a 1,240 in 1 million cancer risk, while Washington County's risk came in at 26 in a million, compared to the state average of 33 in a million or the national average of 36 in a million.
Eric Fitch, director of Marietta College's environmental science program, said the news is good news, but the data is hardly the best gauge of the area's air quality.
"What's important to remember about this is it's a broad assessment tool," he said. "It's good information, it's nice that we have it, but ... of the three things that relate to the area that the EPA released (last week), this is probably the lowest of the near-term significance."
Those three things include this data, news that the EPA is proposing more stringent nitrogen dioxide release standards and the listing of three coal ash ponds at Waterford as having a high hazard risk if they were to fail.
Cathy Milbourn, U.S. EPA spokeswoman, said the data is used as a screening tool to determine areas the agency might have to revisit.
"This is an ongoing, comprehensive evaluation of air toxics and it provides a snapshot of outdoor air quality and the risks of human health in those results remain unchanged," she said. "We develop (the data) to... prioritize pollutants' emission sources and locations of future study to gain a better understanding of risk."
The data looked at levels of 124 different hazardous air pollutants, which are known to cause cancer, respiratory problems and other health effects by coupling estimates of emissions from a variety of sources with models that attempt to simulate how the pollution will disperse in the air. Only 80 of the chemicals evaluated are known to cause cancer, EPA officials said.
The national average of 36 in a million cancer risk is also a decline from the 41.5 in a million cancer risk in the last analysis in 2006. That data covered 1999 emissions. Milbourn said the EPA releases the data every three years and is currently looking at 2005 numbers.
"We do realize, yes, it does take a while to get this data out, but this does look at the long-term risk exposure," she said. "And we are working on ways to get this information out faster."
She also said the findings are consistent with others that show emissions from air toxics declined by 42 percent from 1990 to 2005 and that total emissions of the six principal air pollutants - including lead, ground level ozone and fine particles - dropped by 52 percent between 1980 and 2000.
People living in parts of Coconino County, Ariz., and Lyon County, Nev., had the lowest cancer risk from air toxics. The counties with the least toxic air are Kalawao County, Hawaii, and Golden Valley County, Mont.
Of course, there still are concerns about Washington County's air.
The American Lung Association gave the county's air quality an "F" in its State of the Air report for having 10 days or more in 2008 of ozone pollution levels considered unhealthy to humans by the U.S. EPA. State environmental officials said there had been some improvement, but standards were also made more stringent.
Air quality studies are currently under way in the Mid-Ohio Valley, including air monitoring by the U.S. EPA at Warren Elementary School and the Ohio Valley Educational Service Center office in Marietta, as well as at Neale Elementary School in Vienna, W.Va.
The Associated Press contributed.
