Friday, June 23, 2006

LITTLE MIAMI BRIDGE RAISES HEALTH ISSUES

BY CHRIS CURRAN  

We all want to get to work – and more important – we want to get home from work a little faster.  So, many people are celebrating the news that transportation engineers plan to widen U.S. 32 and build a new bridge over the wild and scenic Little Miami River.  But there are serious health costs associated with the plan to speed up traffic through Hamilton County’s Eastern Corridor.

Your heath is at risk.  Your children and your parents are at even greater risk.  Carnegie-Mellon scientists have determined that air pollution from traffic kills more people than traffic accidents.  If you don’t believe that study, there are more like it.  They all come to same conclusion:  Highways are a health hazard.

Locally, scientists found the same connection between highways and health.  The Cincinnati Childhood Allergy and Air Pollution Study showed a clear link between traffic congestion and respiratory problems in infants.  Nearly one-quarter of Cincinnatians already live in areas considered “hot spots” for diesel exhaust, and the problem isn’t limited to the air we breathe.  University of Cincinnati engineers looked at storm water runoff from Interstate 75 in Cincinnati and found significant concentrations of toxic metals, including cadmium and lead.

The Eastern Corridor project planners have never addressed the health costs of their highway plan, but they have provided some clues to their thinking with their response to environmental concerns about the project.  The Eastern Corridor Web site (easterncorridor.org) claims there would be noise, air, and water pollution “during construction only.”

Have you ever seen a tractor-trailer that didn’t make noise?  Are all of our cars now perfectly emission-free?  What about road salt?  Don’t the highway engineers plan to treat the new bridge after snowstorm?  These incredible claims of a non-polluting highway go a long way toward destroying the credibility of those who made them.

The Eastern Corridor Web site estimates 45,000 to 60,000 people would use the expanded highway every day.  Do we want that much traffic disrupting our quiet neighborhoods?  Do we want our children breathing in all that exhaust?  Can’t we just take a deep breath and consider the alternatives?  There are better and safer ways to get home from work.

Chris Curran of Anderson Township is the mother of three and a graduate student in environmental health at the University of Cincinnati.

Copyright 2006, Enquirer.com