Colorado Medical Professionals Petition County Commissioners to Address Aviation Lead Pollution
Another community is speaking out against the adverse health impacts of leaded aviation fuel.
Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA), formerly Jeffco, is located in Broomfield, Colorado. According to 2017 EPA National Emissions Inventory data, RMMA ranks 63rd among 20,000 airports nationwide in annual lead emissions.
To see an Earthjustice compiled list of the top 100 lead polluting airports in the country click here.
Of note, three Oregon airports - Hillsboro (1204 lbs per year), Bend Municipal (591 lbs per year) and Troutdale (552 lbs per year) appear on this list.
"Doctors, Nurses Ask Jeffco to Take Action on RMMA's Use of Leaded Fuel," by Luke Zarzecki, appeared in the The Westminster Window on August 12, 2022. Per the article,
"A group of doctors sent Jefferson County commissioners a letter and a petition signed by 35 healthcare professionals asking the elected officials to act on leaded fuel at the Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport.
The call to action comes as RMMA ranks 63rd on the top 100 lead-emitting airports in the country. The airport dropped 580 pounds of lead in 2017.
The signees, mostly doctors and nurses, have four demands included: to not increase operations at the airport until a study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is done, increase testing of blood lead levels in children under the age of six, offer unleaded fuels to the aviation community and to adopt a "comprehensive and forward-thinking strategy which focuses on both the needs of aviation users and the health of the surrounding communities."
'This is a no-brainer. Lead is a toxin and it affects developing brains in such a detrimental manner and there's no undoing the damage that's been done by lead,' said Pamela Gewinner, a neonatologist who spearheaded the petition signing.
A 2021 study of the Reid-Hillview Airport in California found elevated blood lead levels in children living within 1.5 miles of the airport, which was ranked 34th out of 100 lead-emitting airports.
Dr. Sammy Zahran of Colorado State University helped complete the study and said that they found that the levels of lead in children increased significantly the closer they were to the Reid-Hillview Airport and that children living downwind of the airport were even more likely to have significantly higher levels of lead in their blood.
Zahran also found the levels of lead in the test subjects' blood correlated to piston-engine aircraft traffic as well as monthly quantities of aviation gasoline sold at the airport.
To access the article in its entirety click here.
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