Chinanews.com, Beijing, April 14 (Reporter Sun Zifa) Springer Nature's international academic journal "Nature-Communication" recently published an environmental science research paper saying that living in the United States is nicknamed a "super fund" site— -That is, residents near the site contaminated by harmful substances may reduce their life expectancy by an average of 0.2 years.
This environmental scientific research assessing the impact of hazardous waste sites on human health points out that the adverse effects of socio-demographic factors and climate change will further aggravate the consequences of reduced average life expectancy.
The paper introduced that in the United States, millions of people live near "super fund" sites, and these sites have hazardous wastes that need to be cleaned up for a long time.
The potential health effects of living in the vicinity of these sites have not yet been assessed at the national level.
The corresponding author of the paper, Hanadi Rifai of the University of Houston in the United States, and colleagues used national geocoding statistical modeling analysis, combined with census data, to assess how life expectancy (representing the general health level) is affected by neighboring "super The impact of the fund’s site.
They found life expectancy data available in more than 65,000 census tracts in 72,268 census tracts in the continental United States and found that people living near the "super fund" site (the site is within the census tract) and people far away from these sites (census tracts) Compared with people without “super fund” venues within the district, the difference in life expectancy data is small but significant: on average, people living in neighboring areas have a life expectancy reduction of about 0.2 years.
In addition, some people live in census areas that have "super fund" sites adjacent to each other, but also suffer from socio-demographic disadvantages, such as low income, low education level, lack of citizenship, lack of insurance, or disability. For those who have disadvantages but no "super fund" venues in the census area, the life expectancy of these residents has been reduced by about 1.22 years.
The author of the paper believes that the degree of adequate preparedness and response to natural disasters in an area will also exacerbate the adverse effects of living near polluted places. For example, floods may wash away toxic chemicals and pollute water supply systems.
In the future, as climate change intensifies and similar events occur more frequently, this effect may become more obvious.
In those census areas where hazardous waste cleanup plans have not yet been implemented, such health effects are even greater.
However, the author of the paper also stated that each "super fund" site needs to be investigated separately to more accurately assess whether its existence is harmful to neighboring residents and how it affects neighboring residents.
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