The Union of Concerned Scientists, the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, and community organizations released an analysis that claims residents in seven communities in the Wilmington area face a higher risk of developing cancer and respiratory illnesses linked to sites in or near their neighborhoods.
The seven communities are in an industrial corridor in New Castle County just outside Wilmington and to the west and south.
The areas have a higher percentage of people of color and/or people living in poverty than the Delaware average. The report compared health risks in these communities to Greenville, an area known for having a largely affluent population.
Delaware is known for having high cancer rates, with some of the blame placed on its location along Interstate 95. Industrial sites have reduced pollution over the years and others have closed. The state has also worked to reduce a formerly high smoking rate: Click on report below:
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The risk of developing cancers and respiratory diseases in these neighborhoods was also compared to mapping information showing their proximity to industrial sources of pollution linked to these diseases.
“For too long, people living in Southbridge and other communities facing environmental injustice have been told that the industries operating near our neighborhoods are safe, or that the health problems we see every day are the result of ‘lifestyle choices’, and the pollution we’ve endured isn’t harmful,” said Octavia Dryden, with Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental Justice stated in a release. “Now, with this report, we have yet more proof that we’re being taken advantage of, and the health of our community and our children is being sacrificed to industries who make money by passing their pollution on to us. This report shows that communities living on the fenceline of the chemical and fossil fuel industries support their profits with our bodies, and receive very little—if anything—in return.”
Mapping information conducted for this report found that the Southbridge neighborhood of Wilmington has 48 EPA listed Brownfields (more than half of all brownfields in Delaware), 13 facilities catalogued in EPA’s TRI, four EPA listed Superfund sites, two facilities which pose the risk of catastrophic disasters and are regulated under EPA’s RMP program, the Port of Wilmington which emits soot and other air pollutants, and multiple waste disposal facilities—all within the neighborhood or less than one mile away, a release stated.
The report urges local, state, and federal decision-makers to take action to reduce risks.
