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Toxic chemicals in New Jersey air pose a serious threat to public health in the state. Although levels of many air toxins have declined over the last decade, the concentrations of these hazardous substances in outdoor air remain far above health protective guidelines established by the federal Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990.

In this report, NJPIRG estimated the cancer risks posed by 33 toxic substances in outdoor air that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified as the most threatening to health in urban areas nationwide.

Although the Clean Air Act established a goal of reducing cancer risk from any toxic substance in our air to below one in one million, NJPIRG found that such toxins are routinely present at levels that exceed this goal by a factor of ten, one hundred, and in the case of diesel particulates, one thousand times.

We analyzed EPA air toxics emissions inventory data from 1996, compiled in a project called the National Air Toxics Exposure Assessment (NATA). NJPIRG estimated the cancer risks posed by these pollutants by comparing EPA's modeled levels of hazardous air pollutants in New Jersey's air with health guideline levels established by the federal government and the state of California.
We also identified the relative contributions of the different pollutants and their sources to the overall hazard level.

Key Findings Include:

High cancer risk exists throughout the entire state.

• The average New Jerseyan breathes levels of hazardous air pollutants that cumulatively exceeded the goal of the Clean Air Act by 1600 times in 1996. Risk exceeded 820 in one million for 95% of the population of the state, and exceeded 3500 in one million for the 5% of the population with the greatest exposure. While local "hot spots" where risk is extremely high may exist, there are no "cold spots" with low risk in New Jersey.
  
  
• Hudson, Camden, Bergen, and Essex Counties have the highest average cancer risks, ranging from 1800 to 3600 in one million.

Cancer risks from hazardous air pollutants in New Jersey counties are among the highest in the country.

• When ranked by average cancer risk from airborne toxins, 17 of New Jersey's 21 counties rank in the top 100 worst counties in the country. They include: Hudson (ranked 2nd), Camden (8th), Bergen (9th), Essex (13th), Monmouth (14th), Union (20th), and Mercer (23rd).

Pollutants produced by mobile sources account for most of the risk.

• Eight compounds are present in levels that expose the majority of the population of New Jersey to a cancer risk greater than one in one million. Five of the top eight pollutants-diesel particulate matter, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde, and acetaldehyde-are primarily emitted by cars, trucks, and off-road vehicles and equipment.
• On road and off-road mobile source pollutants, widely distributed throughout New Jersey, account for 88% of the cancer risk and 86% of the chronic respiratory hazards faced by New Jersey residents.
  

Policy Recommendations

The evidence we present in this report clearly points toward the need to reduce the amount of toxic chemicals emitted by mobile sources into New Jersey's air.

New Jersey should adopt the most stringent emission standards available for new cars and trucks sold in the state.

• New Jersey should adopt the Low Emission Vehicle program (LEV II). This program sets more stringent emission standards for new cars than the federal program, and closes a loophole in the federal program that allows some diesel-fueled cars and light trucks to emit twice as much pollution as their gasoline-fueled counterparts. Most importantly for the long term, LEV II paves the way for the introduction of inherently clean technologies, reducing our reliance upon the internal combustion engine and its inherently toxic fuel.
• New Jersey should promote the purchase of extremely low emission vehicles by providing tax credits to New Jersey residents, procuring only the cleanest cars, trucks, and buses for state fleets, and providing funds to municipalities to assist their purchase of low emission vehicles.
• New Jersey should implement a diesel risk reduction plan, including requiring the retrofitting of existing diesel engines with particle trapping filters. This plan should include on-road and off-road diesel engines.

New Jersey should implement a plan to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) for gasoline and diesel fueled vehicles in the state.
Reducing vehicle miles traveled can have a large and immediate impact on the levels of hazardous air pollutants to complement long term benefits from improved emissions standards.

• New Jersey should invest in mass transit projects, shifting the Department of Transportation's capital plan away from highway widening projects and toward VMT reducing projects.
• The New York and New Jersey Port authority should make a large-scale investment in alternatives to the truck-dominated port infrastructure which contributes heavily to the levels of toxic diesel particulates in the air.

New Jersey should improve its Air Toxics Program to address potential "Hot Spots".
Potential for extremely high risk in localized areas deserves further investigation and risk reduction by the New Jersey DEP.

• New Jersey should expand its monitoring network for air toxics across the state to improve detection and provide accountability for reduction efforts.
• New Jersey should investigate potential "hot spots" where localized risk could be extremely high, and implement plans to mitigate that risk. The most likely example identified in this report is the area around FW & Winter Company in Camden, the state's largest emitter of airborne chromium compounds. Other areas where risk is extremely high may not show up in the coarse scale of this analysis.