Human Health Concerns
In August 2006, EPA completed a report on activity-based sampling (ABS) for Swift Creek dredged materials. The ABS measures the amount of asbestos in the breathing zone of personnel (with respiratory protection) performing routine activities, such as raking, running or biking, and digging/loading. Using these data, EPA estimated cancer risks for adults and children doing the same or similar activities for a given duration and frequency. These risks were, in some cases, greater than 1 in 10,000, a level considered by many health agencies to warrant concern and regulatory action.
In 2008, EPA collected samples outside some homes where residents had used Swift Creek dredged material to make driveways or pathways. Asbestos levels of up to 6 percent were measured. In September 2008, Whatcom County Health Department and the Washington Department of Health jointly issued a health advisory regarding Swift Creek.
In 2009, during heavy rains in January, the Sumas River flooded, leaving sediments behind after the floodwaters passed. EPA sampled upland flood deposits, streamside sediments, and water at 14 locations. Sediments contained up to 27% asbestos, and measurements of asbestos in surface water exceeded federal drinking water standards.
That July, Whatcom County Health Department and the Washington Department of Health updated their health advisory to include the northern part of the Sumas River.
Washington Department of Health completed a health consultation http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/hac/pha/SwiftCreekAsbestos/SwiftCreekAsbestos_2-22-2008.pdf.
Read more about this topic: Swift Creek Landslide
Famous quotes containing the words human, health and/or concerns:
“Not the less does nature continue to fill the heart of youth with suggestions of his enthusiasm, and there are now men,—if indeed I can speak in the plural number,—more exactly, I will say, I have just been conversing with one man, to whom no weight of adverse experience will make it for a moment appear impossible, that thousands of human beings might exercise towards each other the grandest and simplest of sentiments, as well as a knot of friends, or a pair of lovers.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“We have to give ourselves—men in particular—permission to really be with and get to know our children. The premise is that taking care of kids can be a pain in the ass, and it is frustrating and agonizing, but also gratifying and enjoyable. When a little kid says, “I love you, Daddy,” or cries and you comfort her or him, life becomes a richer experience.”
—Anonymous Father. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 3 (1978)
“A man sees only what concerns him.... How much more, then, it requires different intentions of the eye and of the mind to attend to different departments of knowledge! How differently the poet and the naturalist look at objects!”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)