What Are We Doing? The Lands Council just wrapped up its fourth successful season of outreach to homeless, low income, indigenous, ethnic, and other communities on Spokane River toxics. From July 2004 through December 2007, we completed approximately 2,500 surveys, distributed over 4,900 health advisories, and educated over 9,200 individuals in the greater Spokane community! These activities are part of our larger, multi-year goal of building public awareness of the health risks of PCBs in Spokane River fish and heavy metal contamination in beach sediments, reducing human exposure to toxics and protecting public health, and encouraging participation from the total community in the river clean-up process.
Why Are We Doing This? PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) and heavy metals (lead and arsenic) can cause serious health problems in humans. PCB exposure, which occurs from eating fish from certain areas of the Spokane River, causes skin rashes, cancer, liver disease, immune deficiencies, neurological and behavioral complications, and reproductive and endocrine system problems. Exposure to lead and arsenic through contact with certain beach soils of the Spokane River can lead to behavior and learning problems and reduced growth in children, nervous system and kidney damage, and cardiovascular disease.
Who Are We Targeting? We reach out to homeless, low income, and indigenous communities, as well as recent ethnic populations (Slavic, Hispanic, Hmong, and Vietnamese). These folks tend to be frequent users of the river and its resources, have less access to mainstream media for health risk information due to language, social, and other barriers, and in some cases, have cultural or traditional ties to fishing and recreating in the river.
How Are We Doing This? The Lands Council employs a variety of tactics. Our dynamic outreach specialists-native language speakers in the ethnic communities- educate folks one-on-one. We spend time on the river, collect surveys, post and distribute health advisories, staff educational tables at community events, deliver presentations, put on fish cleaning demonstrations, network with social service agencies, homeless shelters, and community organizations, and participate in workshops and conferences.
What's new in 2007? First, thanks to the Spokane Regional Health District, we've created new, more sophisticated "teleform" surveys, which can be machine-fed and imported into an Excel spreadsheet. This will streamline analysis and allow us to do more with survey data. Second, we are expanding our outreach on PCBs and heavy metals to include PBDEs (flame retardants) and dioxins in the river. Lastly, the Department of Ecology is continuing its river cleanup and restoration work. New projects for 2007 include Murray Road & Island Complex, and the Kaiser Trentwood facility.
What have we learned? The surveys that we've collected over the past 4 years have given us data on three communities so far: the Slavic community, the Hispanic community, and the greater Spokane community (focusing on homeless and low income individuals). A few general trends have surfaced:
• Overall river usage is rather high.
• The most popular recreation sites include Boulder Beach, Riverfront Park, People's Park, and Riverside State Park.
• Fish consumption is either decreasing or staying relatively low.
• The vast majority of survey respondents report having health concerns about the Spokane River.
• Knowledge of the contamination in the Spokane River is generally increasing or remaining high.
• Knowledge of river contamination and health concerns, however, is not necessarily changing how people use the river.
Please refer to the graphs for more details:
- Graph: Fish Consumption and Knowledge of Spokane River Toxics in Greater Spokane Community (2005 to 2007)
- Graph: Percent of Slavic and Hispanic Communities Eating Spokane River Fish (2004 to 2007)
- Graph: Percent of Slavic and Hispanic Communities Indicating Knowledge of Spokane River Toxics (2004 to 2007)
What's Next? The Lands Council will continue to educate the above communities, and if the demand is there, will begin outreaching to other ethnic groups as well. Environmental health staff are making special efforts to integrate The Lands Council into the social service community in Spokane. We plan to help organize and participate in a Spokane River Forum, to take place sometime in 2008. Our efforts to make selected communities better-informed, more involved, and more vocal in the river clean-up process will resume. We also expect to incorporate information on PBDEs (flame retardants) and dioxins into our current outreach on PCBs and heavy metals. Learn more about
PBDEs and
dioxins in the Spokane River.
How Can People Protect Themselves? To reduce exposure to PCBs, eat no fish from the Idaho border to Upriver Dam, and limit consumption to one meal per month of fish caught between Upriver and Nine Mile Dams. PCBs accumulate in the skin, fat, organs, bones, and juices of fish. If you must eat the fish, remove and/or avoid eating these parts. To reduce exposure to heavy metals in beach soils (found primarily between Plantes Ferry Park and State Line), avoid muddy soil that can cling to shoes or clothing, avoid breathing dust, and wash your hands and face, especially before eating.
Important Links:
Current News:
- The Lands Council seeks a Hispanic Toxics Outreach Specialist, click here for full job description in English, click here for description en español.
- The Lands Council seeks a Vietnamese or Hmong Toxics Outreach Specialist, click here for full job description.
- Click here for materials from the Spokane River Toxics and Human Health Workshop
- Click here to listen to the KPBX radio story about the Spokane River Toxics and Human Health Workshop that The Lands Council co-hosted on June 18th.
- The Lands Council has hired dedicated interns to assist with our toxics outreach work in Spring/Summer 2008.
