Letters to the Editor
Letter to the Editor | Is Tacoma Narrows Airport a good neighbor? (Part 6)
Editor’s note: Mr. McLaughlin has written several previous letters about Tacoma Narrows Airport. Part 5 is here.
Exposure to lead
If noise and safety don’t bother you, you might want to know about a serious health risk connected to piston driven planes. The vast majority, if not all, of TIW’s touch and go traffic consists of piston driven planes.
TIW sells 100LL aviation gas (“avgas”). The “LL’ stands for low lead, but 100LL has lead in it.
The EPA
Here’s a summary of EPA Regulation 40 CFR Parts 87, 1031, and 1068:
Summary: In this action, the Administrator finds that lead air pollution may reasonably be anticipated to endanger the public health and welfare within the meaning of the Clean Air Act. The Administrator also finds that engine emissions of lead from certain aircraft cause or contribute to the lead air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health and welfare under the Clean Air Act.
The Regulations mention Cessna 172’s (flight school favorites) as a plane covered by the Regulation. Flights schools are mentioned as an industry impacted by the EPA’s findings. Informative quotes:
…young children (due to rapid growth and development of the brain) are vulnerable to a range of neurological effects resulting from exposure to lead.
Low levels of lead in young children’s blood have been linked to adverse effects on intellect, concentration, and academic achievement, and as the EPA has previously noted ‘‘there is no evidence of a threshold below which there are no harmful effects on cognition from [lead] exposure.’’
The multimedia distribution of lead emitted into ambient air creates multiple air-related pathways of human and ecosystem exposure. These pathways may involve media other than air, including indoor and outdoor dust, soil, surface water and sediments, vegetation and biota. The human exposure pathways for lead emitted into air include inhalation of ambient air or ingestion of food, water or other materials, including dust and soil, that have been contaminated through a pathway involving lead deposition from ambient air.
Similarly, with regard to emissions from engines used in covered aircraft (piston driven), there have been studies reporting positive associations of children’s blood lead levels with proximity to airports and activity by covered aircraft thus indicating potential for children’s exposure to lead from covered aircraft engine emissions.
A recent study evaluating cardiovascular mortality rates in adults 65 and older living within a few kilometers and downwind of runways, while not evaluating blood lead levels, found higher mortality rates in adults living near single-runway airports in years with more piston-engine air traffic, but not in adults living near multi-runway airports, suggesting the potential for adverse adult health effects near some airports.
Lead emissions from covered aircraft are the largest single source of lead to air in the U.S., contributing over 50 percent of lead emissions to air starting in 2008 … In 2017, approximately 470 tons of lead were emitted by engines in piston-powered aircraft, which constituted 70 percent of the annual emissions of lead to air in that year.
The extent of atmospheric deposition of lead from aircraft engine emissions would be expected to depend on a number of factors including the size of the particles emitted (smaller particles, such as those in aircraft emissions, have lower settling velocity and may travel farther distances before being deposited compared with larger particles) and the temperature of the exhaust (the high temperature of the exhaust creates plume buoyancy).
The Pulitzer Center
The Pulitzer Center studied avgas lead exposure and concluded that “leaded avgas… is the largest source of airborne lead pollution in the US…Much of this lead ends up being absorbed into the bloodstreams of some of the estimated 5 million people living near airports…including more than 363,000 children.”
Describing the toxicity of lead: “High blood lead levels in children are devastating, causing permanent IQ loss, behavioral problems, and persistent reductions in income and educational achievement. We now know there is no safe level of lead in the human body…”
What’s been done about leaded avgas?
The EPA and FAA have done nothing about leaded avgas. “The…EPA to the…FAA have refused to regulate leaded avgas as a serious health risk…Even an FAA program to fast-track a replacement fuel has failed to produce a substitute after 20 years…” They are hoping to solve this by 2030!
What I’m not saying
I’m not saying the sale or use of 100LL Avgas is illegal. They’re not.
What I am saying
Those using 100LL should have the obligation to minimize the toxic effects of leaded gas on those over whom they fly. Lead exposure is a proven health risk. TIW has options to minimize tat risk by directing traffic over water rather than people.
Two questions
- Why is the Tower not using water routes to protect those they fly over?
- If residents or their children have elevated lead levels, shouldn’t they be able to seek recovery for the harm they’ve suffered?
Craig McLaughlin
Fox Island