Peace Bridge viewed as source of bad air

By Amanda O’Leary and Sametra Polkah-Toe
Bengal News reporters
 While the West Side has been enjoying a growth on the ground with new businesse, it is plagued by the possible growth of the Peace Bridge, and the damaging effect is has on the air quality in the community.

Peace Bridge traffic is being blamed for breathing problems

 The West Side is home to the Peace Bridge, a source of local air pollution. Every day since June 1927, cars and trucks use the bridge to go to and from Canada and United States. Cars and trucks can sit in long lines waiting to get over, and those trucks are a cause of some of the problems with air pollution coming from their emissions.
 After working in the area for a long time, Barbara Sullivan, head nurse at West Side Pediatrics, sees patients come and go everyday with some form of breathing problems.
 “Every day, it spreads out, from the very young to very old,” she said. “Kids start out with asthma, like toddlers or a little bit older, while a lot of adults have respiratory problems.”
 Sullivan has been working at the office, located at 300 Niagara St., for over 22 years and has seen a number of patients who have respiratory problems..
 “The emissions from the diesel trucks send a lot of dust into the community,” she said. “This is a very high area for respiratory disease and high lead.”

Registered Nurse, Barbara Sullivan

Sullivan does admit that some of the older homes that have lead problems and dust from cockroaches also affect people’s respiratory health. But she believes the Peace Bridge is the main reason for the illness.
 Sullivan said, that trucks often sit in traffic on the bridge waiting to get over the border, and this can often back up into the West Side, all the way to Niagara Street. When the trucks just sit there running they are giving off emissions into the community, which are damaging the air quality.
 Sullivan believes that smoking has played a role in why some people have bronchitis and emphysema, but that the emissions also make those health issues worse but when it comes to the patients with asthma, the main cause is the emissions.
She said that she too has been affected.
 “I’m 63-years-old. I’m basically in good health, I worked here 22 years, I have adult onset asthma,” she said. “There is a family history, but I went my whole life perfectly fine and about 10 years ago, I developed asthma. I truly believe it’s from being down here.”

Nurse Barbara Sullivan, on the reasons for respiratory problems on the West Side:


 The Columbus Park-Prospect Hill neighborhood is also is in danger of being taken over to build a new plaza for the Peace Bridge.
 Its Web site lists research done by epidemiologist Jameson Lwebuga-Mukasa has studied the West Side community.
 According to the Web site, “Lung and bronchial cancer rates in the Peace Bridge expansion area are above expected norm in middle-aged males and females” Plus Lwebuga-Mukasa research shows, “The overall prevalence of asthma along the Peace Bridge traffic corridor to be three times higher than the national average.”
The site also reports that 22,000 people on the West Side have some form of respiratory problems, which is higher than other parts of Buffalo.
 The Public Bridge Authority’s Web site acknowledges that there is an issue with the air quality and that vehicles are part of the problem, but they also mention that the expansion project will get rid of some of the emissions.
 For now there is still a problem causing residents of the West Side to have respiratory illnesses like asthma.
 “All the emissions, you can’t feel them, you can smell them sometimes,” Sullivan said. “It’s the dust and all the pollution in the air from the truck emissions.”

Edited by Tiffany Monde