Roxbury: Roxbury residents are exposed to a number of different environmental hazards that have resulted in an asthma hospitalization rate five times the state average. These include the Dudley Square bus terminal and the Bartlett bus depot where 100-200 MBTA buses return every evening and leave from every morning. To make matters worse, the Boston Water and Sewer Commission will be siting a new vehicle depot in the neighborhood. In addition, Roxbury is home to the badly contaminated Modern Electroplating brownfield site, half a dozen solid waste facilities including trash transfer and recycling stations and numerous small businesses whose operations threaten public health, such as nail salons and auto body repair shops.

Lawrence: Lawrence’s asthma hospitalization rate also is higher than the state average and the city has a very significant lead poisoning problem. The community hosts the BFI medical waste incinerator, the largest such incinerator in New England; Crown Cork and Seal, one of the largest toxics releasers in the state according to EPA; and until recently, the Ogden Martin trash incinerator. While the Lawrence incinerator closed last year, two other incinerators are close by: the Ogden Martin facility in Haverhill and the Wheelabrator incinerator in North Andover.

New Bedford: Decades of impact have resulted in New Bedford Harbor being designated a Superfund site due to PCB contamination. Years of harbor dumping by textile, copper and metal manufacturing firms have left an indelible mark on the region. New Bedford also falls in the top ten communities statewide in terms of the number of brownfield sites found there, with 96 known sites. More than 300,000 pounds of recognized carcinogens are released into the air annually by the top five polluting firms.

Pittsfield: Pittsfield, surrounding communities, and the Housatonic River that flows through the area have been seriously threatened by the PCBs released by the GE Plant located there. An EPA Human Health Risk Evaluation found that:

• young children and teenagers playing in or near portions of the river face non-cancer risks that are 200 times greater than EPA considers safe. Noncancer effects from PCBs may include liver and nervous system damage and developmental abnormalities, including lower IQs.
• teenagers growing up near portions of the river face a 1 in 1,000 cancer risk due to exposure to contaminated riverbank soils.

• a nine-year old child who consumes one meal of fish from the Housatonic River each week for just one summer faces noncancer risks about 900 times higher than EPA considers safe.