Make A Plan For Children And New Jobs
Placing a truck stop near an elementary school is a bad idea, for many reasons. The most compelling one is that diesel exhaust damages lung development in children.
A carefully designed study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine (the nation’s leading medical journal), showed this conclusively. The study followed over 1,700 children for eight years, measuring levels of diesel-related air pollution at multiple sites in each of the 12 communities where these children lived.
Children exposed to diesel exhaust were five times more likely to have underdeveloped lungs (equivalent to a 40-year-old) compared to children with less exposure, and are unlikely ever to recover the lost lung function.
Since reduced lung function is a well-established and strong risk factor for health problems during adulthood, this means that a truck stop near an elementary school could have persistent, life-long effects on the children attending that school.
The truck stop applicant states that the prevailing wind direction at Exit 24 would blow air pollution away from the school. This is misleading. Prevailing winds differ from surface winds which, in mountainous areas like ours, are largely determined by wind circulation between mountains and valleys.
National Weather Service data show that surface winds in Meadowview come from multiple directions, and blow toward as well as away from the school. At times there is no wind at all to clear the air at Exit 24.
Further, though diesel technology is changing, even the newest exhaust mitigation efforts do not remove the small particulates of diesel exhaust. These are the most damaging because they penetrate so deeply into lung tissue.
County leaders should insist that the truck stop be located at Exit 22 (a more appropriate location), and provide incentives to defray additional costs of site preparation. Save both jobs and children.
Nancy Blaney
Abingdon, Va.
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Reader Reactions
Peterbilt,
Like I said in another letter post. These people are not very intellegent. They act on emotion for their agenda and are very well funded.
I dont think we need a truck stop at meadowview, all it’s going to do is provide me with an opportunity to have to work for a living, like the rest of the people who oppose this truck stop I dont want to have to earn a living. So I guess I will play that “kill the childern with pollution” card that sounds like that is some Penn and Tell bull.
I have a suggestion. Get Love’s to locate at Exit 39 so our people will not have to drive all the way to Meadowview to work. After that, let’s get started mandating that the trucking companies convert their trucks to gasoline engines so all of us will not wind up short of breath. For the short term, maybe we should get a bypass built so that those trucks will not come through Meadowview on the way to Seven Mile Ford. Don’t forget, we need to get all these school buses converted back to gasoline too. One last thing, we probably should put an Astrodome type structure over the school. That should just about cover it.
Well all I can say is you dont know the area because you dont know which way the wind blows in meadowview…(Stick it at exit 22)...If you are so concerned, what about the people there??? Or do they not matter??? You are a very smart person Nancy….For one thing the truckstop cant go at 22 anyway…No room… Not considered commercial…The land thats there is NOT for sale…Oh lets not forget about the NEW ASPHALT PLANT that is going at exit 22….And yes I know this to be fact because it was approved by the B.O.S…..It was in the paper…
Nancy, NYY covered your “study” pretty good so I will try to fix your thinking on another statement you made, Exit 22 is NOT an option, the land is NOT available and the land that is available is NOT an option. You can NOT force a company to build somewhere that is not fesable for them.
And as for the fumes, do you not realize that the school is beside an interstate right now where 6,400 big rigs run up and down the road daily. Where is all the pollution that you speak of, did VDOT make the interstate to where all the fumes are magically removed from the air if the trucks are on the interstate?
Again, we have another person using scare tactics which are unproven for this situatuion and area. I have heard about this study and decided to look it up and found that it was done in Southern California, in 12 neighborhoods and was done to test air pollution as a whole not just diesel fumes. Air pollution in Southern California of course is significantly higher due to the amount of people and businsses in Southern California. This study is very misleading and can not be associated with a small travel center in a small ghost town in Southwest VA. Also, while looking for this study, I found a study on diesel exhaust exposure for children riding school buses which was 5-10 times higher than at 13 other fixed locations in a study in Conneticut. It seems like you would want to complain about this study. At least it is comparable! Please do not try to misinform people on this issue and stick with the facts. And the facts are is this travel center will not cause any problems at Meadowview Elem. which is not even visible from the building site. We need growth, jobs and conveniences in Meadowview and we can not push away business based upon opinions and fear.
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