Protecting Children from Toxic Waste: Data-Usability Evaluation Can Deter Flawed Cleanup

• Main Authors: Kristin Shrader-Frechette, Andrew M. Biondo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2020-01-01
• Series: International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
• Subjects: children; data-usability evaluation (due); environmental justice; ninyo and moore; pasadena; california; perchloroethylene (pce); remediation; toxic waste; trammell crow; trichloroethylene (tce)
• Online Access: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/2/424

Nearly 25 percent of US children live within 2 km of toxic-waste sites, most of which are in urban areas. They face higher rates of cancer than adults, partly because the dominant contaminants at most US hazardous-waste sites include genotoxic carcinogens, like trichloroethylene, that are much more harmful to children. The <i>purpose</i> of this article is to help protect the public, especially children, from these threats and to improve toxics-remediation by beginning to test our <i>hypothesi</i>s: If site-remediation assessments fail data-usability evaluation (DUE), they likely compromise later cleanups and public health, especially children&#8217;s health. To begin hypothesis-testing, we perform a focused DUE for an unremediated, Pasadena, California toxic site. Our DUE methods are (a) comparing project-specific, remediation-assessment data with the remediation-assessment conceptual site model (CSM), in order to identify data gaps, and (b) using data-gap directionality to assess possible determinate bias (whether reported toxics risks are lower/higher than true values). Our <i>results</i> reveal (1) major CSM data gaps, particularly regarding Pasadena-toxic-site risks to children; (2) determinate bias, namely, risk underestimation; thus (3) likely inadequate remediation. Our discussion shows that if these results are generalizable, requiring routine, independent, DUEs might deter flawed toxic-site assessment/cleanup and resulting health threats, especially to children.