It is a health hazard

While proclaiming the benefits of building a freeway connecting the Glenn and New Seward Highways, officials are not acknowledging the health threats to people who would live near the proposed highway.

In 2005, local air quality officials studied how constructing all proposed projects in Anchorage’s Long Range Transportation Plan would affect air quality. They found that while carbon monoxide levels would drop citywide due to cleaner engines, two square kilometers of Fairview would experience increases in carbon monoxide[1]. Increases came from expected doubling of the traffic along the Gambell-Ingra corridor after construction of the Glenn-Seward Highway connection. Coarse particle pollution from roadway silt is also expected to rise along the new highway connection.

These important findings have not been included in Highway 2 Highway handouts or presentations. Most recently, on September 15, 2008, the project’s Citizens and Highway Users Advisory Committee was briefed on air quality issues, but were not informed about the health consequences of increased traffic from the highway connection.[2]

Local studies show that children living near “busy roads” are significantly more likely to have asthma than children living farther away, even when the city meets federal air quality standards.[3] Gambell – Ingra through Fairview is already one of Anchorage’s busiest roads. While the decision has not been made conclusively for the connection to run through Fairview, wherever it is built, major increases in traffic will bring increased air pollution that is associated with asthma and upper respiratory infections.

Sources and health effects of air pollution

Carbon monoxide is a poison that starves the body of oxygen and is especially threatening to children and unborn fetuses.[4] Coarse particle pollution called “PM10″ or particle matter less than 10 microns, is associated with increased asthma and upper respiratory infections, even at levels the federal government now considers safe or “healthy.”[5]

The study concluded that PM10 levels rise with increased vehicle speeds, weight and road miles traveled. This fact is especially troubling because the highway to highway connection is expected to increase vehicle speeds and attract freight traffic.

Given these data, ACC urges the project team to revisit the air quality issue and design a rigorous and specific air quality analysis plan. It is important that we as a community look after the residents of Fairview, whose numbers include a large number of low income families. Low income neighborhoods should not be expected to bear most of the safety and pollution costs of the proposed freeway.

Anchorage Citizens Coalition board member Walt Parker says, “The Anchorage Citizens Coalition calls on the Municipality and State to be honest with the people of Anchorage and acknowledge the health threats of building this highway connection through the most dense residential areas of Anchorage. The coalition recommends moving Anchorage into the 21st century and developing a transportation plan that relies on building the city up not out, with speedy, convenient transit as the primary solution to congestion and air pollution.”

[1] Page 6 paragraph 4, Analysis of the Air Quality Impacts of the Anchorage Long Range Transportation Plan, October 6, 2005 ATTACHED

[2] http://www.highway2highway.com/documents/CHUAC/091508%20CHUAC%20Data%20Presentations.pdf (slides 40-54)

[3] http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacd/cd47/traffic.pdf

[4] The diameter of a human hair is about 80 microns.

[5] http://www.ehponline.org/docs/1996/104-3/gordian.html

[Source: Excerpted from communication from Anchorage Citizens Coalition 10-27-08]