Some highlights of the study:
"On June 19, 2009, the Department of Public Health received a request from the Office of the City Manager of the City of Greensboro to assess the health impact on the neighboring community, if any, of the EH Glass waste disposal site located at 1103 Nealtown Road in eastern Greensboro."
The county health department report states some things about modes of transmission that we already know. The report notes that the most common means of exposure to contaminants or toxins are through groundwater or air. The hydrology of the EH Glass site, which is located near the White Street Landfill "is such that surface water and underground water drains away from the property to the north, into Buffalo Creek and then toward the northeast. When the area was incorporated into Greensboro and area housing development began in the 1950s new homes were connected to municipal water supplies and nearly all existing homes switched from well to municipal water. Municipal water is drawn from lakes Townsend and Brandt which are located far from the area of concern."
About air transmission the study states, "Southwest to northeast is also the general direction of wind flow in Guilford County, according to data from the Division of Air Quality in North Carolina's Department of Environmental and Natural Resources (DENR) based on data from Piedmont Triad Airport wind monitoring station. Any potential air-born contaminant emanating from the site would tend to blow away from nearby neighborhoods, limiting exposures."
The county health department report gives the EH Glass site a clean bill of health:
"No known contaminants or toxins have been identified as present on the EH Glass property and potential contaminants would move away from residential neighborhoods due to the area hydrology and wind patterns."
The county health department "conducted a comparative analysis of rates of cancer mortality, preterm birth and low birth weight among persons living within a four hundred yard area around the EH Glass site compared to persons living 400-800 yards from the site, and the general population of Guilford County."
The county health department's methodology and study area differ from those of a report on cancer incidence in the area of the two solid waste sites that was released by the NC Cancer Registry last week. The two studies' findings also differ somewhat, although the NC Cancer Registry looked at specific types of cancer and the county health department lumped all cancers together.
The county health department report finds: "All-cause cancer rates for the two buffer zones around the EH Glass facility were not higher than for the county as a whole. Rates of low birth weight and preterm births similarly were not significantly higher than the rates for the county as a whole, and those living closest to the landfill area actually had the lowest rates, which would be unlikely to occur if community residents were exposed to environmental contaminants emanating from the EH Glass property."
The county health department report also includes a section summarizing the earlier NC Cancer Registry study. Its signature finding is that the incidence of pancreatic cancer in the study area is higher than expected, but the statistical association does not imply causation.
The county health department study seems to offer a rebuttal to the NC Cancer Registry study, stating that "the referent group was the state population as a whole. However, the population in the CCR study area is dissimilar to the demographic composition of the state as a whole, most notably with respect to percentage of African-Americans. Blacks make up 21% of the NC population but 53% of the population of the study area. Rates of pancreatic cancer are known to be significantly higher among African Americans, so this fact alone is likely to explain the 'elevated' incidence of pancreatic cancer in the study area."
The county health department study offers a final "salient issue" in support of its conclusion that there is no health risk to neighboring residents: "Environmental factors suspected of a causal relationship to pancreatic cancer include, along with smoking, such occupational exposures such as certain pesticides and some dyes. No evidence of the presence of these chemicals at the EH Glass landfill area has been discovered."
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