Cancer Risk Reported for Neighbors of Landfill
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San Gabriel Valley residents living near the controversial BKK Corp. landfill face a risk of contracting cancer that is slightly above the U.S. average, according to a recently completed health-risk assessment by USC and the state Department of Health Services.
However, researchers also concluded that the cancer rate for those living around the West Covina landfill was essentially the same as for Los Angeles County overall. The studies involved 100,000 residents who lived around the landfill from 1972 to 1982, when it was one of the state’s principal toxic waste disposal sites.
The heightened risk translates into an additional 2 people out of 100,000 who are likely to develop cancer as a result of the presence of vinyl chloride, a carcinogen present in the air, soil and water around the landfill, which is now closed to toxic waste.
About 33,000 people in the study area would be expected to contract cancer regardless of the landfill’s proximity, researchers said.
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