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www.env-comm.org

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Text Box: eco board Marvin Kraus, Chair mgkraus@one.net Marilyn Wall, Treasurer marilyn.wall@env-comm.org Eileen Frechette, Secretary efwoodenshoe@fuse.net Jim Lowenburg jlowenburg@fuse.net Marie Kocoshis pskocoshis@cinci.rr.com Deb Zureick deb.zureick@cincinnatizoo.org eco staff Marti Sinclair, Program Director marti.sinclair@env-comm.org Clearing the Air is the quarterly newsletter of ECO: Environmental Community Organization, a 501( c)3 non-profit. ECO is a network of dedicated individuals that preserves community and environmental health through organizing with communities, action to hold industry and government accountable, and education efforts. Contact ECO at:: 515 Wyoming Ave, Cincinnati OH 45215. We’d like to hear from you!

Text Box: Working alone in our offices one recent workday, I found my energy level flagging mid-afternoon. So I made a cup of tea, turned on some music-for-word-processing, and lit a stick of incense to dispel the kitchen odors wafting up from the restaurant below my office. A short time later, a coworker in an adjacent office knocked on my door. The stream of incense had migrated into her office and had so irritated her nose and throat that she was heading home for the rest of the day. I was surprised and chagrined. Is there more to incense than an uplifting scent? (Continued on page 2)

Text Box: The Addyston Ohio Lanxess plastics plant has been among the top emissions sources for toxic air pollutants in Hamilton County for some years. The 2004 Ohio Citizen Action organizing campaign began to coalesce the community’s environmental concerns and, coincidentally, those concerns were heightened after Lanxess had a series of accidental releases. Environmental officials responded by monitoring local air pollution levels and they found the levels of carcinogens emitted by Lanxess exceeded health-based standards. This led officials to investigate public health in Addyston. In May 2006, the Ohio Department of Health and the Hamilton County General Health District produced a report evaluating cancer incidence among Addyston residents as compared to Ohioans and also to Hamilton County residents. (1) The findings from this assessment were disturbing. The cancer incidence in Addyston was higher than expected (55 observed, 31.2 expected) for the years 1996 through 2003. During that same time period, the incidence of lung and bronchus cancer and colon and rectum cancer were all three times higher than the expected rate.

Text Box: Special Feature on Indoor Air Pollution: Smoke is Smoke Marti Sinclair

Text Box: clearing the AIR in Cincinnati and Southwest Ohio