Examination of the impact of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport on the region poses a number of analytic challenges. In a previous blog article, Seattle-Tacoma International Airport - Pollution, I discussed pollution issues. Links to my other blog issues on the airport may be found listed below.
The focus of this blog article is on health related issues which may be related to airport operations, keeping in mind that there are other sources of pollution that may contribute to health conditions, and that there are factors other than environmental conditions which may contribute to health conditions.
Other sources of pollution may include vehicular traffic, such as cars, trucks, vans, buses and rail systems, as well as industry and commerce as well as other human activity such as wood burning. Many factors, in addition to pollutants, contribute to health. Economic and sociological factors such as poverty, education and disenfranchisement all are factors which influence health.
There is considerable information available from the King County Health Department on the geographical distribution of various medical conditions. These are listed below. Incidences of cancer, respiratory disease, cardiac and pulmonary heart conditions vary throughout the county.
MEDICAL ISSUES
Known
- A number of medical conditions may be impacted by environmental factors, including cancer, respiratory/pulmonary,sleep disorders, blood/vascular disorders, immune system disorders, cardiac disorders and neurological/psychiatric/psychological issues that can emerge as a result of increased environmental exposure. The impact of air pollution on the generation of reactive species such as oxygen and other radicals may also adversely impact sleep states.
- Environmental pollutants often increase generation of reactive species or oxygen radicals, increasing oxidative stress, impacting a number of medical conditions, and may create new ones.
- Electromagnetic fields (microwaves) - Potential effects vary according to the distance from the source with general public exposure lessened. Health effects studied include cancer, physiological and thermoregulatory responses, reproductive issues, cataracts, and impacts on calcium ion mobility. Effects have not been sufficiently established to be able to determine regulatory standards.
- Studies have been made by the Washington State Department of Health on glioblastoma multiforme and other conditions.
- A February 25, 1999 report from the State Health Department and King County Health Department indicates: "While the state health department found that the occurrence of all SeaTac Concerned Citizen cancers in the area within 5 miles of the airport was less than expected in comparison to King County, the Seattle-King County health assessment found an increase in cancer deaths around SeaTac Airport." This study examines health issues in the neighboring communities around the airport.
- There are extensive studies from the King County Department of Public Health available regarding a variety of health and socioeconomic factors for the communities in King County. These reports indicate increased incidence of cancer and pulmonary disease, but decreased risk of heart attack, stroke and Alzheimers relative to other areas. There is also a higher degree of cigarette smoking in the region, complicating analysis. There is a range of socioeconomic indicators showing lower socioeconomic indicators in the region.
Past Legacy
- One of the cardinal features of evolution is the incorporation of biologicals and minerals into a system in order to advance features that have evolutionary advantage. This is called biomineralization. It is not inconceivable that out of the many molecules emitted through airport operations (and other sources throughout the region), that one in the witches brew of combinations might find a home within the human body, evolving the system, or throwing a monkey wrench into it. Calcite enabled the creation of the eye in trilobytes in the pre-Cambrian. However a serious problem in this process is the issue of interoperability between systems in such processes.
- To what extent does the ground on which we sit impact health? The area holds the legacy of the ASARCO Tacoma Smelter Plume formed in 1899, and the emissions since that period. This legacy impacts rock, soil, water and air. The Seattle-Tacoma International airport sits on a considerable amount of fill, which is in addition any deposition that may have fell on the underlying soil. Other parts of the region may also have been impacted by sand, rock and gravel transported from sites more heavily impacted by the ASARCO Smelter's operations.
- The airport sits on Fraser Glaciation, Vashon Stade. To what extent do the rocks around the airport and the water affect health? It is possible that the area of the airport could hold some clue to past evolution. A sloth was discovered in a swampy area north of the airport in 1961, and a mammoth tusk was discovered in the South Lake Union area of Seattle. Both sit at the Burke Museum. DNA analysis from an archaeological find could perhaps provide scientists with clues to help solve emerging problems germane to our evolution and our ancestors.
Emerging or Unknown
- The emergence of new and novel health risks may occur in the witch's brew of chemical soup surrounding the airport and other areas subject to environmental risk. Illnesses that normally occur in other areas of the world may emerge in this arena, given the geological milieu in which the airport sits, the meteorological conditions, and the increased levels of pollutants, including carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide is a sensitive indicator of global warming and climate change and may also impact the respiratory system in a similar fashion in the immediate neighborhood of the airport.
- Seasonal flu and emerging viruses, could recombine in the environment surrounding the airport, mixing human and bird migration patterns with environmental factors impacting local populations. Thus viruses could serve as a vector for the incorporation of novel or emerging features resulting from the witches brew of chemicals.
- Chemicals emitted in the witches brew of chemical emitted from airport operations could be impacted by solar radiation, a source of energy, especially during periods of geomagnetic storms. Potentially subatomic collisions could evoke a transitional state in molecules, and be incorporated into the body. Any impact from the creation of transitional molecules would be in addition to any direct effect from any solar storms.
- The witches brew of chemicals emitted by air transport, given the power, acceleration, deceleration and forces put on aircraft engines, abrasion, means that more exotic chemicals may be created. However, it is possible that similar types of reactions may also be occurring in different parts of the region, perhaps to a different extent.
Establishing Correlations between Pollutants and Medical Conditions
- While some pollutants in particular are points of focus, the extensive lists provided make it difficult to correlate exposures to any one or any combination of health outcomes. This is an issue of multiple correlation analysis in the face of numerous variables and outcomes, many of which may interact with each other to alter individual correlation between any two variables.
- Analysis of risk focuses on cancer metrics. While the emergence of the cancer risk is important (and critical), identification of other outcomes is also important. Early indicators of future outcomes may serve as helpful markers of environmental distress before its impact becomes too severe.
- Environmental markers might include blood coagulation measurements, markers for the impact of oxidative stress, markes for nuclear DNA and mtDNA damage, and markers for the preference of glycolysis in cells (Warburg Hypothesis), among other things.
- Categorization of medical systems, or medical coding, puts medical conditions in "boxes" which may make analysis difficult when causes and/or outcomes cross boundaries, medical conditions are inappropriately categorized or new information informs medicine.
- The division of conditions into physiological versus psychological causes presents such difficulties, especially when these conditions are subject to such a wide disparity of treatment throughout the existing sociological framework. The bifurcation of conditions into physiological versus behavioral outcomes tends to create categories that diminish or ignore the health and sociological impact of pollution exposure and/or cross category lines.
- Some indices that represent psychological stress may combine various psychological indicators in a weighting formula that may impede the ability to do correlation analysis on any one factor. One is left with memories of Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle", a book about meat packing plants, wondering how the whole was constructed from the parts. Thus, the question remains in indices and tests as to whether the manner in which the indices are constructed drive a certain result or whether indices keep pace with changes in their individual components.
- Occupational and environmental health outcomes are not appropriately measured in a manner that can express the full continuum of types of work that exists in the sociological sphere. This reflects the existing dysfunctional definitions of work and disability, and impacts correlation analysis between occupational and environmental health.
- Medical fields studying intersecting fields of study, such as neurology, psychiatry and psychology can come into conflict at times, making it more difficult to study health outcomes emerging from environmental factors.
- Definitions based on subjective issues such as behavior and, belief systems, emerge to complicate the analysis of the impacts of environmental pollutants.
- The drive to cut medical costs conflicts with testing the impacts of increased environmental load on the public, leaving the impacts uncertain and placing the burden on those impacted.
- Increased population and economic activity has impacted Western Washington so that environmental risk exists in many places throughout the region, to varying degree.
- The medical system currently does not provide sufficient support to provide both testing and treatment of medical conditions which may arise from the increased exposure to environmental pathogens. There are barriers to entry into the medical system which impede the ability to measure outcomes and protect human test subjects in the evolutionary process.
- Assessment of different contributors to morbidity and mortality may confound research into the underlying environmental issues. An example of this is assessing the contribution of smoking to morbidity and mortality versus the environmental effects caused by airport operations.
- Different statistical measures may be used by reports, confusing the reader or making it difficult to interpret data shown in different forms; Data may be presented with an incidence rate (occurrence of a condition in a population over a period of time), a prevalence rate (percentage of a population having a condition at a specific period of time) or mortality rate (percentage of deaths in a population over a period of time). The US Government publishes data on morbidity and mortality .
Sources:
Puget Sound Clean Air Agency - Final Report - Puget Sound Air Toxics Evaluation - October 2003
Department of Ecology - Toxic Cleanup Program (ASARCO Smelter Plume)
World Health Organization - Electromagnetic Fields
Port of Seattle - Part 150 Study
Port of Seattle - Groundwater Monitoring
Port of Seattle - Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan
Scandanavian Journal of Health - Glioblastoma Multiforme
Tacoma Smelter Plume Information - Washington Department of Ecology
King County Community Health Indicators - King County (Top 10 Leading Causes of Death)
King County Public Health -School District Health Profiles
King County Health Profile
King County Public Health - Data and Reports
Blog Articles:
Externalities and Risk - The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport - Environmental Issues
Seattle-Tacoma International Airport - Pollution
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