Environmental Health

Although SEPA requires discussion of Environmental Health in a specific set of concerns (primarily hazardous materials), this section also responds to public scoping comments and discusses a wider range of environmental and human health issues. According the University of Washington, environmental health is “the study of how environmental factors can harm human health and how to identify, prevent, and control these effects” (UW, 2000). Environmental health topics include quality of life as well as aspects of human health that are determined by biological, chemical, and social factors. The purpose of analyzing topics relating to environmental health is to determine the necessary measures to asses, correct, control, and prevent potentially adverse environmental factors that my have an adverse impact on public health.

Many topics relating to human health are discussed elsewhere in this DEIS and include:

• Provision of adequate and affordable housing and maintenance of existing housing. They are key factors in promoting and maintaining public health of a community.
• Safety, including personal safety, as well as mobility-related safety (automobile, transit use, biking and walking).
• Noise may be considered as a re-emerging environmental health issue, due to potential noise increases from transportation, industry, and other sources in urban environment.
• The availability of sidewalks, bikeways and pedestrian-friendly development contributes to physical activity and general well-being of the population.
• Proximity and degree of risk of exposure to hazardous materials. A particular area of concern is the proximity of hazardous waste clean-up sites to residential communities.
• Air quality is a continuing concern, and while the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency addresses this issue, it is also a concern to environmental health – particularly the relationship with respiratory disease.
• Equitable community distribution of potential exposures to environmental hazards and the involvement of all citizens in the planning process.

Among these topics, noise is addressed in Chapter 5.14, while safety is discussed in the Health Issue Paper and Transportation Issue Paper in Appendix E. Water quality discussions, including surface water contamination and the potential for exposure to fecal matter, water, and related illness is generally covered in Chapter 5.6 - Water Quality and Hydrology, which also includes discussions of impaired waterbodies. Nonmotorized facilities are addressed in Chapter 5.3 - Transportation and pedestrian friendly development is discussed in Chapter 5.2 - Land Use. Active living considerations are addressed in more detail in the Health Issue Paper and Transportation Issue Paper, which is attached in Appendix E. Air quality, including a discussion of respiratory illnesses, is addressed in Chapter 5-4. And issues of equitable community distribution are part of discussion in Chapter 6 - Environmental Justice.

The additional analysis of environmental health considerations presented below focuses on information related to the location and nature of potentially hazardous material.