My hometown zipcode scorecard

I grew up in the Midwest in Springfield, MO. I remember my senior year of high school, I had a history teacher that told me she had moved to Springfield from New York because her son's asthma was so bad they thought he was going to die. She told me that when she and her husband researched air quality across the United States, Springfield had the cleanest air in the country. My findings from the zipcode scorecard suggest otherwise.

According to my zipcode scorecard, Greene country, my community, ranks among the dirtiest/worst 20% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of cancer risk score. The top company polluters in Greene County are:

1) James River Power Station, 2) Southwest Power Station, 3) Carlisle Power Transmission Prods. Inc. , 4) Clariant LSM (Missouri) INC, 5) Ridewell Corp, 6) Paul Mueller Inc, 7) Ozarks Cultured Marble, 8) Webco Inc, 9) Kerr Mcgee Chemical, 10) Loren Cook Co.

The top chemicals released are:

1) Hydrochloric acid, 2) Sulfuric acid, 3) hydrofluoric acid, 4) Toulene, 5) Zinc compounds, 6)Dichloromethanc, 7) Xylene, 8) Styrene, 9) Chloromethanes, 10) Barium, 11) Bromine, 12)Creosotes, 13) Methanol, 14) Copper, 15) Manganese, 16) N-Hexane

While I don't recognize all of these chemicals, many of them were discussed in Silent Spring and Generations at Risk. These are toxic and known environmental hazards, especially to a developing fetus.

Lead Hazards: About two percent of houses in green country have a high risk of lead hazards. The home I grew up in was built in the early 1900s, so I'm pretty sure I was at risk for lead exposure while growing up :)

Superfund: Greene ranks among the cleanest/best 20% of all counties in the U.S. in terms of the number of designated Superfund sites. A Superfund is a toxic waste site and there is one located in Springfield. It is called Solid State Circuits Inc. This site covers about one acre in Republic, Missouri. During investigations, the state found the Circuits Inc. guilty of burying debris in the soil contaminated with TCE.  This TCE then seeped into well system and contaminated the drinking water for the city of Republic. Further investigation revealed contamination of ground water by lead on site. Thankfully, there is only one superfund near the 65802 zipcode.

Air Quality: According to the scorecard, Greene county ranks among the top 10% all of all counties for dirty air. The top polluters can be seen above. It was interesting to note, however, the scorecard gives a rating of the overall quality of air by days of healthy air per year. According to this source, about 89% of the time, there is good quality air.

Water Quality: Greene county has clean water ranks better than 80% of other counties in the country on clean water. There are about ten bodies of water around the county that are impaired, being contaminated with metals, organic compounds, or pathogens.

Environmental Justice: This was an interesting result. In the Springfield area, the north side of the city is known as the poor, urban area with a lot of "white trash" and poor black people. The south side is where all the rich kids live; out in surburbea with all the nice schools, nice houses, and nice cars. The results of the score card for social justice what not what I expected. In nearly all the categories, there was equitable distribution among the environmental burden. I did not see any race or income disproportionately burdened by exposure to superfund sites, chemical exposures, or toxic chemicals. In many ways, more educated, white, higher income recipients had greater exposure to theses measures than people of color, those less educated, and those living below the poverty line.

I did find something very remarkable in my search. African Americans are disproportionately effected by cancer risk in the Greene county area. Given the data I viewed on the environmental scorecard, I believe this risk must have something to do with social determinants of health and remnants of the social ecological theory. Something to think about at least.