EPA Community Suffers from Presence of Toxic Waste Sites

A visit to the Environmental Protection Agency / Superfund Site information page will reveal that the Community of East Palo Alto shares a heavy load in terms of the presence of toxic industrial sites in the community.

According to Alana Conner of the Stanford Innovation Review, poor children bear an unreasonabel health burden when it comes to environmental risks:

"In the November 2007 issue of Psychological Science, researchers plot one possible path: Poor kids are exposed to so many social and physical risks that their bodies no longer react properly to stress. Indeed, the longer they live in poverty, the worse they handle stress, says Gary W. Evans, a psychologist at Cornell University and the study’s lead author. Some 17 percent of children in America live in families with incomes below the federal poverty line, according to a 2005 U.S. Census Bureau report. A minority of these children will escape poverty by the time they grow up. Even so, their bodies will still bear the marks of their early deprivations as they succumb to higher rates of cancer, infectious diseases, arthritis, and other ailments. Adults who never leave poverty suffer even worse fates, studies show."

YUCA, a local youth based environmental organization, has been working hard to expose the risks to children and all people in East Palo Alto, especially the sites and the companies that are responsible for creating these risks. We applaud this type of advocacy that is exposing the presence of these hazardous sites in the East Palo Alto Community. View YUCA's "Explosive Truth" video that focuses on a toxic chemical release in the community that occured in 2006 (below).

Other organizations, such as the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition, are looking at our entire region.

Studies show a link between air quality and health issues such as asthma. East Palo Alto has a higher rate of childhood asthma than the rest of San Mateo County. In children, environmental toxins are estimated to cause up to 35 percent of asthma cases, up to 10 percent of cancer cases, and up to 20 percent of neurobehavioral disorders.

Toxics have a long reach. Read about a recent study that shows that even some of the most remote and pristine areas of nature are not immune from these poisonous substances.

Wolfram Alderson, Executive Director of Collective Roots, has provided a personal perspective on environmental deception and the battle against pollution in his blog. Read his riveting story by clicking here.