Doctors Concerned About Clean Air

As physicians, health care professionals and public health researchers who work in the New York metropolitan area, we are writing to highlight the urgent need to reduce New Yorkers’ exposure to the air pollution created by traffic.  
 
Science has long shown that air pollution from trucks and cars is bad for health and is an important contributor to elevated levels of smog and soot across the region. Now, a powerful and increasing body of scientific literature demonstrates a special risk associated with near-roadway exposure. Studies show that people who live near heavily used roadways face significantly elevated risks of asthma attacks, heart disease, stunted childhood lung development, adverse birth outcomes, cancer and other diseases, contributing to premature death. Children appear to be especially at risk: exposures during pregnancy and early childhood to roadside air pollution have been linked to higher rates of subsequent respiratory and developmental problems. 
 
An approach to clean air that focuses solely on regional ambient average concentrations of pollutions is not enough to protect the millions of New Yorkers who live or work in pollution “risk zones” along major roadways. Federal and state policies aimed at bringing the region into compliance with EPA healthy air targets are critically important, but it is also important for the city to adopt measures like congestion pricing that can reduce pollution at the street and neighborhood level. Innovative solutions like congestion pricing plan are needed now to address these serious health concerns.
 
Current scientific studies indicate that residing, working or going to school within approximately 500 yards of a major roadway leads to higher exposures to traffic-related air pollution and increased risks from the serious health problems listed above. More than 2 million New Yorkers live in this zone of higher air pollution risk. 
 
With 1 in 8 New Yorkers diagnosed with asthma during their lifetimes, asthma rates in children as high as 25% in some neighborhoods, and children in New York twice as likely to need hospitalization as the national average, cleaning the air and protecting the lungs of children and adults with asthma is a health imperative for the city.
 
We call on the commission to recommend and city and state leaders to adopt effective measures to reduce New Yorkers’ exposures to traffic-related air pollution. Congestion pricing and the full range of proposals in PlaNYC should be implemented in a way that tackles these local health exposures. Principles of the plan should include:
 
1.       An effective, fair, congestion pricing program. A congestion pricing program can cut traffic heading to the central business district and raise needed funds to invest in transit. Such a plan must be designed to ensure traffic reductions both inside the zone and outside it, especially along the major feeder roadways that funnel traffic from the region, through the five boroughs of the city, to the central business district. Any system must deliver traffic-reduction benefits to the communities most impacted by these feeder routes (and must include measures to ensure that any potential increase in parking at the boundaries does not threaten those benefits).   Fairness and privacy are important concerns as well.
 
2.   Sustainable funding for public transit. Revenues from congestion pricing must be invested in transit in a way that delivers immediate relief to transit-poor communities during the implementation phase of congestion pricing – and, for the long term, that helps break the financial gridlock that has slowed the city’s investment in major transit expansion projects like the Second Avenue subway and better commuter links to the suburbs and outer boroughs. 
 
3.   Cleaner fleets. Congestion pricing should be accompanied by other vehicle pollution reduction measures, like diesel retrofits and clean fleet upgrades. As outlined in PlaNYC, fleets like school buses and taxis should be immediate priorities.
 
4.   Safer, more efficient streets and sidewalks. The city also needs a full range of other congestion-reducing measures, from better parking management to better efforts to coordinate construction schedules, which we encourage the city and state to continue to investigate. Improved safety and street design measures for pedestrians and bicyclists should further encourage these modes of transportation.
 

We applaud the City and State for taking the initiative to create a bold and innovative plan to make New York the most environmentally sustainable and healthy city in the world. We fully support efforts to reduce traffic congestion and resulting air pollution and serious harm to public health, and call on the commission to make the strongest and most effective recommendations possible to protect the health of New Yorkers, now and for the future.

Sincerely,

DOCTORS CONCERNED ABOUT CLEAN AIR
November 1, 2007
 
Luz Claudio, PhD
Associate Professor and Chief
Division of International Health
Mount Sinai School of Medicine*
 
Holger M. Eisl, PhD
Research Associate Professor
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences Center for the Biology of Natural Systems
Queens College, CUNY*
 
Nicholas Freudenberg, Dr PH
Distinguished Professor of Public Health
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
George Friedman-Jiménez, MD
Director, Bellevue/NYU Occupational and Environmental Medicine Clinic*
NYU School of Medicine
 
Marthe R. Gold, MD, MPH
Professor and Chair
Dept of Community Health and Social Medicine
City College, NYU*
 
Mark Goldberg, PhD
Associate Professor
Urban Public Health Program
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
Patrick L. Kinney, ScD
Associate Professor
Dept of Environmental Health Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health*
 
Howard Kipen, MD, MPH
Professor and Division Chief
Clinical Research and Occupational Medicine
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School*
 
Susan Klitzman, DrPH, MPH
Professor and Director
Urban Public Health Program
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
Philip J. Landrigan, MD, MSc
Professor and Chairman
Dept of Community & Preventive Medicine
Professor of Pediatrics
Mount Sinai School of Medicine*
 
Robert Laumbach MD, MPH, CIH
Assistant Professor
Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences Institute
UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson Medical School*
 
Eric Leibert, MD FCCP
Assistant Professor of Medicine
NYU School of Medicine*
 
Stephen M. Levin, MD
Medical Director
Mount Sinai – IJ Selikoff Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine
Mount Sinai School of Medicine*
 
Steven Markowitz, MD
Director, Center for the Biology of Natural Systems
Professor of Environmental Sciences
Queens College, CUNY*
 
Franklin E. Mirer, PhD, CIH
Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Hunter School of Health Sciences
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
Frederica P. Perera, DrPH
Professor of Public Health
Director, Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health
Dept of Environmental Health Sciences
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health*
 
Joan Reibman, MD
Associate Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine
NYU School of Medicine*
 
Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, PhD
Assistant Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences
Urban Public Health Program
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
William Rom, MD, MPH
Sol and Judith Bergstein Professor of Medicine and Environmental Medicine
Director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
NYU School of Medicine*
 
Tara Sherman, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor 
Department of Psychiatry
Columbia University School of Medicine
 
Arlene Spark, EdD, RD, FADA, FACN
Associate Professor
Hunter College, CUNY*
 
George D. Thurston, ScD
Associate Professor of Environmental Medicine, NYU *
 
Leonardo Trasande, MD, MPP
Assistant Director, Center for Children’s Health and the Environment
Assistant Professor, Dept of Community and Preventive Medicine and Dept of Pediatrics
Mount Sinai School of Medicine*
 
Anthony Weiss, MD
Assistant Clinical Professor
Mount Sinai School of Medicine
* Institutional information is provided for identification purposes only and does not constitute institutional endorsement

One of the world’s leading international nonprofit organizations, Environmental Defense Fund (edf.org) creates transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems. To do so, EDF links science, economics, law, and innovative private-sector partnerships. With more than 3 million members and offices in the United States, China, Mexico, Indonesia and the European Union, EDF’s scientists, economists, attorneys and policy experts are working in 28 countries to turn our solutions into action. Connect with us on Twitter @EnvDefenseFund