Show The Salt Lake Tribune Sunday July 23 1989 I Airborne Toxins Prompt Geographer to Map By Barbara Brownell National Geographic Writer For AP Newsfeatures The growing menace of polluted air in the United States both in urban and rural areas has prompted a Rutgers University geographer to coin a new word: "riskscape" "The release of airborne toxic chemicals is going on all the time" says Susan Cutter "You've got the chemicals in a manufacturing plant You've got anhydrous ammonia in fertilizer in farm fields You've got chlorine in storage tanks at your local swimming pool Every day some toxics are being released around you" In 1987 27 billion pounds of toxic debris filled America's air says a report released this spring by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Texas industries alone accounted for 240 million pounds and Ohio industries ran second with 173 million according to the report "As a geographer landscape is a common word for me" says Cutter "Because I'm studying landscapes at risk to acute airborne toxics risks-cap- e seemed a logical word" In a riskscape there is danger of acute toxins being released into the air Acute toxins are chemicals that form toxic clouds such as hydrogen chloride and methyl isocyanate (MIC) These have immediate harmful effects on the human population If acute enough such substances can be fatal as they were at Bhopal India in 1984 MIC leaked from a storage tank at the Union Carbide plant there spreading a toxic cloud over five square miles Some 2500 people died and 200000 were in- P 0 :: e tf ::::: " :::: ''' k-:: 3''''' 4 - ''''4'' :'—' A::: - $':1" ":'f e t' t " ' v ::: ::':::'----:---:-::--- " :: " " ' 4fl 4:4 :::1 1 t Ar :1:::4:::::ii:4::::4::A::t:1(!: ":'-:t41- ':':P--:'-:- 114- :: i 1::::tit-:::-- 1 tijI4VIrx0 : :i I: 4:g - :::::::::: ::: :: 1 1 ": ? $14'4" " :3 : Oppo !"--- t- 4 IS:jA I 7 t :'': 2y ' 't- - already have been spent logging information for this first national inventory The inventory lists toxins used and released during 1987 For it some 19000 companies filed more than 75000 reports — one for each chemical used by each company The in yentory was released June 19 About 80000 chemicals are m common use today of which 328 chemicals considered extremely hazardous make up the computerized inventory The EPA data reflect all chronic emissions of chemicals to air water and land Cutter is concentrating only on acute airborne releases y She is doing a using all 3041 analysis for 1980-9counties in the United States Mainly she is gathering accounts of major accidents in the counties during that decade She is also documenting county industrial structures use of pesticides transportation systems community response capabilities even weather patterns Such factors help deter mine risk levels From the data collected Cutter will compute riskscapes After determining where the nation's riskscapes are Cutter will map them so that levels of risk in each county can be compared at a glance county-by-count- 0 e! - 4 ' ' :k'" ' 1 s4icam :Z' 4-- c 0 t4 7- 0000::::::::::4:-::::- ' 0 !: c4:''''''41' f ' f f '' k r"— 40101111'' r1t4 $ z -- 0Yt- - :'' 4-- '' ''' n ' t 1 t ::: 5r ' ' AttIOMVPOSOSeibgaMiltal4ASaOK j i04440001tOINOOKAMO11100fhiWlii4S0r4t010"0"!W4"40!'n'1440ig64 't A09" Ness losorphoto —AssocialKi holds pollutants close to the ground Salt 'Akers are all too familiar with this effect Denver's "brown cloud" of smoke and smog returns each winter as heavy cold air City's smallest borough want to cut ties with Gotham's government figuring they have by far the better place to live Secession? Improbable say some Impossible others argue Inevitable say a few A renewed secessionist movement was prompted by a US Supreme Court ruling in March that declared the city's Board of Estimate — which awards lucrative franchises contracts and projects — unconstitun e tional under the rule On the board the borough president of Staten Island carries the same vote as his Brooklyn counterpart although Brooklyn's population at 22 million is five times as large The court ordered New York to create a new form of government one that will likely eliminate the Board of Estimate and emasculate the offices of the city's five borough presidents Those outside Staten Island and some who live there don't take talk of secession seriously and as a result island residents and local politicians find themselves the brunt of some more than gentle ribbing these days Borough President Ralph Lamberti has been referred to at city hearings on the matter as the "new George Washington" City i'7:0:-:-----::- : - ''-- 'r-- e - one-perso- :::: e ' It i ': I die-har- ''t tt z -44 that as it may many of the 400000 residents of New York - 4c :: Be : r"1 - - dump" " curred there" Cutters study iS timely It goes hand in hand vith an EPA project ' computerize data on toxic levels of industries in each state Millions of dollars and many hours T)"1 By Judie Glave Associated Press Writer NEW YORK — Across New York Harbor from Manhattan's elegant towers the turnaround point on a famous 25 cent ferry ride Staten Island is often derided as "the worlds largest garbage :': - skscapes' I Many Staten Island Residents Are Ready To Take a Bite Out of the Big Apple " $?s 0 A cluster of accidents has already oc jured Similar accidents on a smaller scale have occurred in the United States In 1985 for example MIC leaked from a plant in West Virginia's Kanawha Valley near the capital of Charleston sending 135 people to the hospital Large-scal- e tragedy was averted because people followed emergency-respons- e plans "Despite a facility's advanced technology — and the best safety measures there is always potential for catastrophe" says Cutter "No place where hazardous chemicals exist is risk-free- " The degree of risk from acute airborne substances depends on where you live says Cutter In a study sup ported in part by the National Geographic Society she is taking a nationwide inventory of America's dirty air defining areas across the country that are threatened by airborne toxins "It's too early in my study to tell where the most dangerous regions are" she says "But if I were giving someone advice on where not to live IA say stay away from metropolitan areas like Chicago the coast of southern California and the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas Such places are at risk because chemicals are used in both agriculture and in industry Also chemicals are transported along interstates and by rail "The Kanawha Valley is another high-ris- k place It has a heavy concentration of chemical industries and a large transportation corridor A3 —Associated Press Photo Although much of the coast off Staten Island is polluted swimmers still find places to cool off in summer's heat one-vot- Councilman Jerome O'Donovan says he's tired of council colleagues calling him alderman And local secession activist Dan Singletary says he's even been kidded by his daughter who lives in Detroit "She saw a story in a local newspaper called up and said 'Dad the world's largest garbage dump wants to secede?" To many Staten Island and gar bage are synonymous thanks to the Fresh Kills landfill a sprawlgaring 2000 acre bage dump which is already 20 stories high at its tallest point and growing "Yes we are the largest garbage dump in the world but maybe we want to be more than that" says Singletary a transplanted Chicagoan and artist who became active in community affairs during his 20 years on the island To those who live there Staten st eets Island with its tree-linegreen hills and wetland and wildlife sanctuaries is the last reiuge from the concrete and condominiums of the rest of the city Nearly 14 miles long and 7 miles wide it is 212 times the size of Manhattan (also an island) Its residents are 90 percent white middle- - and upper-middl- e class workers many of whom fled from deteriorating Brooklyn neighborhoods after the Verrazano-Na- r rows Bridge opened in 1964 the only roadway linking Staten Island to the rest of the city "We are not Manhattan-styl- e people" says Les Trautmann editor of the daily Staten Island Advance which has a circulation of about 90000 "We tend to be more family oriented" That small-tow- n feeling is reflected in the newspaper which Trautmann says without embarrassment does "the chicken dinner stuff" lists bridge club results column deand has a front-pag- e voted to good news Most tourists know the borough only as the turnaround point of the Staten Island ferry ride a bargain excursion good for viewing lower Manhattan skyscrapers and the Statue of Liberty But if tourists looked beyond the drab and dingy docks the American Institute of Architects guide says they would find "hills d as steep as San Francisco's ' e i t i:e: '''' tii:V "4: '''' :' ' ' i:"4 :'::::::::-:- ! :::: ' :' ': is - e00': t !k: i y :::::t: :::: I :::44 i 10 '':1 t::0:::::::: ::::::::as 1:: :::: ' YeIMN: ::X51 e:: 1::::::::::1::::::0 4 4 :::::::z4:::::::: 17::::::4: ::' :4: :::4 ":::::::::: g::-i- 4: ::::A'''''‘'''':::? :::::: ::: : :i: 4 i ::::::?::::j'::::L::::::::::: ::::'::::::::::: :: 'f4::Ji:J-::::::1:1::::'A4:::j::::::: i:':''::::::' " 1898 ° '1:V::::::::::1P::::::::::i "And a larger group of people who feel New York City is the greatest city in the world and they don't want to leave unless it is absolutely necessary Unfortunate- ly that may be the case" Initial proposals that floated by the Charter Revision Commissim a special panel appointed by Mayor Edward I Koch to revamp city government did not leave Staten Islanders smiling It recommended eliminating the Board of Estimate and expanding the City Council the city's other main legislative body from 35 to 60 members Staten Island currently has two representatives on the City Council and would pick LIP only one new member under the expansion plan Land development and city services have topped Staten Island's list of complaints since it joined the Greater City of New York in !tH:::::1 ::::'':4':::i::::::::::::::' :1 '4ttt''''''::a3:4 Dan Singletary Secession Activist sewers water Transportation odor service and the emanating from the dump are the bane of Staten Islanders On parts of the island water pressure is so low that on some days residents bathrooms canwith second-floo- r not flush toilets "I would be for secession" says Richard Mahler 30 a technical service manager in Manhattan and a native Staten Islander "The island has changed so drastically since I was a kid "Woods have been torn down condos and town houses are springing up all over traffic is a mess As for crime I don't even feel safe letting my kids run around in the front yard alone We didn't worry about those kinds of things when I was growing up" Mahler who is weighing a move to New Jersey or upstate New York concedes that crime is a universal problem today and that is- land development after the bridge was inevitable But he says with secession "at least we would have some control over how the island's ever-prese- - breathtaking views of New York Harbor and Victorian mansions" The street where Borough hail stands looks like Main Street USA its neighbors include a small stationery store country furniture shop luncheonette and d church Staten Island also has miles of beaches although many are polluted parks and playgrounds galore 1000 acres of protected greenland and the city's only historic restoration area Still Staten Island represents only 5 percent of the city's population of 7 million and New York Harbor serves as a wide moat "We have run into two kinds of people on Staten Island" says Singletary "People who feel that the quality of life here has changed so drastically that they see no reason to stay part of the city white-steeple- changing" Lease on Life Running Out as Bypass Patients Face Repeat Surgery By Max Gates Newhouse News Service The coronary bypass operation has given a new lease on life to more than 2 million Americans since its in troduction 20 years ago but for many the lease has run out An increasing number of bypass patients are requiring repeat sur: gery an operation that carries more t risk each time it is performed Repeat surgery now makes up per: haps 10 percent of the more than 330000 bypass operations per the United States each : year Third fourth and even fifth operations are common : formed in Repeat operations have become a specialty among heart surgeons and I at some hospitals repeaters make up : half or more of the bypass patients Patients have repeat bypasses for the same reasons they have the ini: tial operations — obstructions in the arteries that feed the heart and the : chest pains called angina that are a of those obstructions : symptom "We're dealing with a select group of : : said Dr Jerold patients" a Milwaukee heart sur- Brenowitz geon who specializes in repeat paBents -The people who come here are not the ones who said they never want to have the operation again and they're not the ones who have I done real well The other people we don't see are the ones who die" In the bypass operation shunts are constructed around the fatty deposits that block blood flow to the heart While the value of the operation has been questioned particularly its ability to extend the life of heart pa Coronary Artery Bypass Operations l7cifi I thousands) (in 35° A 300 4 Bypass tk A 250 VIA All Blocked coronary 'artery 411 ild tients bypass surgery has reduced chest pain and allowed increased activity for many patients However the outcome for repeat operations is not as good as it is with first-tim- e surgery More patients die before leaving the hospital although still a small percentage and the five-yesurvival rate is about 10 percent lower Repeat patients are also more likely to continue to suffer angina Repeat bypass patients are at higher risk in part because they are five 10 even 15 years older than when they received their first bypass Also the process of atherosclerosis the buildup of deposits inside arteries that reduces or shuts off blood flow is not stopped by bypass surgery Many patients who come back for subsequent operations have done little or nothing in the way of dietary or lifestyle changes to protect 200 ilIl 150 against cardiovascular problems Furthermore the presence of previous bypass operation grafts — the shunts that carry blood around blockages in arteries — create technical difficulties that don't exist in first-timer- 411101101 1100 '79 '81 '83 '85 s "It '87 Source: National Center for Heattl Statistics Hiiary Porado Newhouse News Service is much more technically de- manding more arduous surgery" said Dr Floyd Loop of the Cleveland Clinic Still repeat bypass surgeons say the rills can be worth taking espe daily in patients who are otherwise in good health -Reoperations in selected cases can be very rewarding The benefits can outweigh the risks but the patient should be informed about the experience of the surgeons in reoperations and seek places that have the best results" Loop said Repeat bypass surgery is not new — the first one was performed in 1969 just a few months after the first bypass About 5 within five percentage cally after d that one-thir- percent of bypasses fail years Loop said and the of failures rises dramati10 years He estimated of all patients who re 93000 on Standby as Pan Ant Shoots for Moon By Steven Mufson Washington Post Writer NEW YORK — One small step for man one giant standby list for Pan Am Even if the United States meets President Bush's ambitious plan to start settling the moon by the year 2001 it would mean that Pan American World Airways' first commercial lunar flight will be running about a year behind schedule To say nothing of the standbys About 93000 people are currently on a Pan Am waiting list for the first commercial passenger flight to the moon The list dates back to 1964 Five years before man set foot on the moon an Austrian journalist named Gerhard Pistor set foot in a Vienna travel agency and asked to book a seat on the first flight to what Shakespeare called "the warry star" to what Alfred Noyes called "a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas" to what Shelley called "that orbed maiden" "Pardon me?" the agent said Pistor repeated that he wanted to book a flight to the moon The travel agent took a deposit of 500 Austrian shillings — then worth about $20 — and sent his request to Pan Am and Aeroflot Aeroflot jokingly replied that the first flight was booked but that there might be room on the second The Soviet airline recommended Pis-to- r make reservations at the lintel ti 1 - ceived bypasses in the 1970s have been back for repeat operations An estimated 20000 to 30000 repeats will be done this year "The greatest reason that sends people back for repeat operations is deterioration of vein grafts They are prone to atherosclerosis just like the original arteries" said Loop M0AmAtAdli AML filt41ff okt Crater Two weeks later Pan Am accepted his reservation and said it expected the flight to depart about the year 2000 We might be a little off schedule" Pan Am spokesman Elizabeth Manners conceded But she said Pan Am was keeping the list in an archive and will pull it out when — "note didn t say if" Manners said — the airline starts regular service The number of people booking reservations on Pan Am flights to the moon surged after the successful Apollo 8 mission on Dec 22 1968 and after the lunar landing of the Apollo 11 crew 20 years ago on July 20 1969 1 AO fo4f tf4411E Aft11 |