DEP
Releases Study that Ranks Top Risks to New Jersey's Environment
and Human Health:
Land
Use Change Poses a Major Environmental Threat to State
(03/106) TRENTON Department
of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Bradley M.
Campbell today released the final report of the New Jersey
Comparative Risk Project that ranks land use change, indoor
and outdoor pollution, and invasive species as major threats
to New Jerseys environment and people.
A comprehensive review of current
science has validated Governor McGreeveys core priorities
for strengthening public health standards and natural resource
protection, said Commissioner Campbell. From
the battle for smart growth to the enforcement of tough
new rules to protect families as well as forests from emerging
threats, this report shows that the Administrations
priorities are the right ones.
The final report of the New Jersey Comparative
Risk Project, funded by the DEP and U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, was overseen by a 19-member independent panel. Seventy-three
experts analyzed and ranked 88 chemical, physical and biological
factors (stressors) according to their relative
impacts on human health, ecological quality and socioeconomic
conditions. The report provides 178 detailed analyses of
stressors from acid precipitation and benzene to West Nile
Virus and zinc. Its findings indicate that the conversion
of undeveloped land poses the top ecological and socioeconomic
risk to New Jerseys environment and people. Indoor
pollution and outdoor air pollution pose major health and
socioeconomic risks, and invasive species pose serious ecological
threats to several New Jersey ecosystems.
In addition to ranking land use change
and habitat alteration as the greatest ecological threat,
the report findings indicate that the greatest human health
risks resulted from various forms of indoor pollution, such
as secondhand tobacco smoke, lead, radon, indoor asthma
inducers, indoor pesticide use and carbon monoxide. For
many of these stressors, report findings indicate that children
are among the most at risk populations in the
state because they are more susceptible to statewide exposure
levels.
The four major findings of the report are:
-
Land use change produced by a wide margin the largest
negative ecological and socioeconomic impacts, including
habitat and species loss, congestion, air pollution,
and increased flooding and stormwater flows due to greater
impervious cover.
-
Indoor pollution, which includes exposure to chemicals
and pesticides and ingestion of lead, ranked among the
highest human health and socioeconomic threats.
-
Invasive species, including certain plants, insects
and organisms, pose a serious ecological threat to the
states forests, waterways, wetlands and other
natural ecosystems. Invasive insect species accidentally
or deliberately brought from foreign countries have
the potential to destroy native forests while exotic
plant species threaten biodiversity and affect the native
food source for wildlife.
-
Outdoor air pollutants, including ground-level ozone,
sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides, continue to pose
significant ecological and health risks despite progress
in reducing outdoor air pollution, removing lead from
gasoline and remediating brownfields sites.
Overall findings of the report indicate
that physical alteration of habitat, a consequence of land
use change, is one of the most compelling ecological problems
in New Jersey. Statewide, habitat loss and fragmentation
are leading to species loss and permanent destruction within
several of the states ecosystems. Greater exposure
to ultraviolet radiation from the sun due to ozone depletion
is highlighted as an ecological, socioeconomic and human
health risk. The historic use of chemicals and their persistence
in soils and sediments is also highlighted as a significant
ecological threat.
Invasive species are a significant ecological
threat in New Jersey. Insects such as the Asian long-horned
beetle and the hemlock woolly adelgid have the potential
to destroy entire forest ecosystems. More than 90 percent
of the states hemlock stands have suffered various
degrees of defoliation. The report also indicates that the
zebra mussel, a thumbnail-sized mollusk that has destroyed
ecological communities in waterways in dozens of states,
poses a significant ecological threat to the states
freshwater ecosystems.
Based on the New Jersey Comparative Risk
Project findings, the Steering Committee recommended 19
actions, including:
-
The DEP should collaborate with state and local planning
officials to design and implement strengthened efforts
to reduce the environmental impacts of land use change;
-
DEP and other environmental managers should join the
Department of Health and Senior Services to examine
systematically indoor pollutions impacts and management
options, and to take action against these problems;
and
-
Continued vigilance should be employed to combat threats
posed by invasive species and hazardous air pollutants.
Officials of DEP and the state Department
of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) have already begun
coordinating to prepare an action plan for indoor pollution.
A representative of DHSS participated on the projects
steering committee.
Daniel Rubenstein, professor and chair
of Princeton Universitys Department of Ecology &
Evolutionary Biology, and Sheryl Telford, business team
manager for E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Co., served as
co-chairs of the 19-member steering committee.
A complete copy of the New Jersey Comparative
Risk Project report is available on the DEP web page at
www.nj.gov/dep.
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