By Jonathan Witte / For The Herald
I want to express my appreciation to The Herald for publishing the recent guest commentary by Paul Roberts (“Eco-nomics: We’re breathing in what we put into the air,” The Herald, March 3). Thanks and congratulations also to Roberts for writing such an informative and timely article. It provides an excellent summary of the range of serious health impacts caused by the climate crisis.
As a retired physician, I am deeply concerned about these impacts and the health predicament that we find ourselves in. One of the major health impacts is caused by air pollution generated from burning fossil fuels. It’s estimated that 1,100 Washingtonians die each year from heart attacks caused by outdoor air pollution, not to mention thousands of cases of flare-ups of asthma and other respiratory diseases. Cancers, diabetes and dementia are also linked to air pollution.
We generally think that our air in Washington state is pretty clean. However, between 2021 and 2023, according to America’s Health Rankings (from United Health Foundation) Washington ranked only 35th out of all 50 states. When one looks at the Washington Environmental Health Disparities Map (tinyurl.com/WAhealthmap), it is clear that most of the poor air quality is concentrated in certain areas, most notably near the sate’s larger cities and extending along the I-5 traffic corridor throughout Puget Sound.
Low income communities and communities of color tend to be located in these areas of heavy traffic and industrial plants, which are major sources of air pollution. This results in a disproportionately high incidence of adverse health impacts in these communities. A report from the Washington Department of Ecology (tinyurl.com/EcologyAirReport) predicts that older adults in these communities are twice as likely to die from health conditions linked to breathing fine particles from human-caused sources. This report also found that between 2016 and 2020 people of all ages in these communities lived an average 2.4 years fewer than people in the rest of Washington.
There have been recent cruel and ultimately disastrous funding cuts at the national level, including indiscriminate slashing of critical federal government programs focusing on health concerns, as well as those combating climate change, restoring a clean environment, and promoting socio-economic equity. Given all this, it is easy to become discouraged and feel that there is nothing that one can do. We are, however, fortunate that we live in a state where positive and pro-active efforts are very much alive and well.
One such effort involves legislation currently under consideration in Olympia, the Cumulative Risk Burden (CURB) Pollution Act (House Bill 1303 and Senate Bill 5380). This bill is designed to ensure that communities that have historically borne the worst effects of pollution, due to redlining and institutional racism, should not continue to bear the ongoing harm being inflicted on their health, well-being, and even life expectancy today. Under current laws, the process that permits businesses to pollute is not required to consider the effects of our history of environmental racism and the cumulative health risk and burden the most impacted communities face. The CURB Pollution Act will change this. Among other things it:
Requires the consideration of health impacts that are caused by certain pollutants, which are currently unaddressed by the permitting process.
Specifies specific protections for communities that have been disproportionately harmed by pollution.
Requires a lead agency to conduct a detailed environmental justice impact statement that analyzes what cumulative effects a potentially impactful project would have on a pollution-burdened community.
Elevates voices of community members through frontline community participation in the permit process.
One important action that everyone can take is to contact their state senator and state representatives and urge them to support the CURB Pollution Act. Hopefully, when this important legislation is enacted, we can all begin to breathe a little easier.
Dr. Jonathan Witte is a retired Everett physician and member of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility and serves on its Climate and Health Task Force.
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