Community health & the environment in Commerce City-North Denver

Everything in your environment -- the food you eat, the air you breathe, the water you drink, and chemicals all around you --  can impact your health.

Knowing there is pollution in your environment can be stressful, but not all pollutants will have harmful effects on your health. For a substance to affect you, you have to breathe it, touch it, or swallow it. Whether something will cause a harmful health impact depends on:

• What it is.
• How much of it you come into contact with.
  How long you are in contact with it.
• How often you come into contact with it.
• Whether you breathed it, touched it, or swallowed it.
• Factors like your age and genetics.

For example, spending a little time with the sunlight touching your skin can be good. Sunshine helps your body make Vitamin D and improves your mood. But spending hours every day in the sun without protecting yourself can hurt you right away by causing sunburn. It can also hurt you later on by causing skin cancer.

Sometimes, exposure to a single substance can cause great harm. More often, though, whether you have harmful health impacts depends on many factors both inside and outside your body. Those things, and your genetics, can combine to cause illness. Often, it is impossible to pinpoint one specific source of a health impact.

You can better control some of the things that cause health impacts more directly.  For example, we each can make individual choices about what we eat and how much we exercise.  But we also can work together as individuals to collectively influence how much pollution is in our environment. Environmental justice refers to the meaningful involvement of all people in decisions about the environment. CDPHE is committed to partnering with Commerce City - North Denver communities to reduce pollution disparities that can impact your health.

There are many federal and state laws and regulations related to pollution in our environment.

Regulations are mandatory requirements that can apply to businesses, state or local governments, non-profit institutions, individuals (such as water operators), or other groups. 

Some laws set the standard for the levels of pollutants allowed in the air, water, or soil. For example:

• National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), set the levels of six air pollutants, including fine particles and ozone, that can be harmful to public health and the environment. 
• National Primary Drinking Water Regulations set the limits for specific contaminants in drinking water from public water suppliers. 

• CDPHE uses the US EPA’s Regional Screening Levels as the starting point for assessing the potential for remediation of contaminated air, water, or soils.

When a company releases pollution above the level allowed by these standards, it can increase the risk of harmful health impacts in some groups of people. But, whether someone will experience harmful health impacts depends on many factors, including how much someone is exposed to a pollutant and for how long.

Other laws and regulations target how pollutants get into our environment by setting limits on the sources of pollution. For example:

• Using authority from the Clean Air Act, CDPHE issues permits for air pollution sources that exceed specific thresholds. These permits document allowable emission limits, how the source will comply with emission limits, and what controls they will use to reduce emissions. 
• Before an industry can put used water into a river or lake, they must get a permit from CDPHE that states what quality that water must be. The permit typically requires regular testing for pollutants.
• Facilities that treat, store, or dispose of hazardous waste must follow CDPHE requirements and obtain a hazardous waste permit. These permits help CDPHE keep track of the location and amount of hazardous waste being managed. More important, permits ensure facilities are following the laws about design and operation, safety standards, monitoring, and reporting. Permits also require facilities to develop emergency plans, properly train employees to handle hazardous waste, and more.

Sometimes a company violates a regulation or a permit by releasing more pollution than it is allowed to release. CDPHE takes these violations seriously. The company may have to pay fines for violations, and sometimes might instead fund Supplemental Environmental Projects to benefit communities.

When companies violate regulations or their permits, CDPHE's compliance and enforcement teams investigate the issue to make sure it doesn't happen again. While not every permit violation necessarily affects public health, CDPHE is committed to taking swift action to address pollution that threatens public health or safety.

Not all pollutants are regulated. Federal and state agencies review new information on pollutants to determine if they should be included in existing or new regulations. 
 

From talking with the community, we know that air pollution, lead, benzene, and hydrogen cyanide are top concerns.

We can’t tell what causes a single person’s health problems, but we know different pollutants are associated with different health problems. We can look at the levels of pollutants and the diseases they are associated with in your community.

Fine particle air pollution

Where fine particle air pollution comes from

Fine particle pollution means particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers. It is also called PM2.5. Fine particle air pollution comes from many different sources.

• Some particles go directly into the air. These can come from factories burning fossil fuels, construction activities, wood-burning fires, and vehicle exhaust.
• Other particles are formed after gases in the air mix together. These gases can come from the whole region and include sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, volatile organic compounds, and ammonia.
• Industrial activities, including Suncor, are the largest sources of fine particle pollution in Commerce City - North Denver.

Health impacts of fine particle air pollution

Fine particles can travel deep into the lungs and enter the bloodstream. These particles can cause numerous health impacts, including trouble breathing, asthma attacks, and heart issues.

• These problems include asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).

• Adults in the Commerce City-North Denver area have similar asthma levels to adults in other parts of the state. But, Commerce City-North Denver residents go to emergency departments for asthma much more often. Higher levels of air pollution could be one reason why. Additionally, there may be differences in residents’ asthma severity or they may have less access to routine health care.

Benzene

Where benzene comes from

Benzene is one of many volatile organic compounds (also called VOCs) people can be exposed to every day. Outdoor air contains benzene. Low levels come from cigarette smoke, vehicle exhaust, and industrial releases. Higher levels of benzene are found at industrial sites, oil and gas operations, gas stations, and near buses and large trucks. 
 

• We estimated the most important sources of benzene based on information from air permits for industrial sources and data about how much traffic moves through the area.

• CDPHE measured levels of benzene in the area during the summer of 2021. You can see that data here. The levels of benzene we found are not expected to harm people's health.

Health impacts of benzene

• Benzene exposure over long periods can cause anemia and leukemia.

• Short exposures to higher benzene levels can lead to headaches, dizziness, breathing issues, irritated skin, and irritated eyes.

Hydrogen cyanide

Where hydrogen cyanide comes from

Hydrogen cyanide is a colorless gas. Human activities cause most of the cyanide in the environment. Sources of hydrogen cyanide include oil refineries, such as Suncor, vehicles, and cigarette smoke.

Health impacts of hydrogen cyanide

• Breathing in high levels of hydrogen cyanide for long periods of time can harm health. It can cause breathing difficulties, chest pain, vomiting, and more.
• Breathing in very high levels for short periods can harm the brain and heart and can cause coma and death.

Lead

Where lead comes from

Lead is a type of metal that is found naturally on Earth and it is in all parts of our environment. Historical smelting plants -- Asarco, Omaha & Grant, and Argo - operated in the Commerce City - North Denver area beginning in the 1870s.  As a result, there were elevated levels of lead and arsenic in nearby soils in the area that became the Vasquez Boulevard & Interstate 70 (VB/I-70) Superfund site and the Asarco Globe cleanup site.

CDPHE and EPA partnered with community members to clean up lead and arsenic in the soil in north Denver neighborhoods. The cleanup lasted many years and included replacing soil in yards where there were elevated lead levels. In 2014, CDPHE and its partners completed the Asarco globe cleanup. In 2019, EPA and CDPHE determined that residential soil cleanup was completed at the VB/I-70 Superfund site, and what is known as Operable Unit 1 was delisted. 

There still are other sources of lead in the area, such as lead-based paint, soil near roadways, and lead in plumbing fixtures in older homes. 

Health impacts of lead

Lead exposure is especially harmful for young children. It can damage the brain, slow growth and development, and contribute to learning problems. These problems can last a lifetime.

• Find out more about the data behind this project on our Commerce City - North Denver data dashboard.
• Test your home for lead in paint or soil, and find out whether your children should get tested. Learn how at colorado.gov/lead/lead-testing 
• If you don’t have a health care provider, find one near you. Community health centers don’t turn people away because of their age, their ability to pay, or whether or not they have health insurance.
• Get involved in community environmental projects. Visit our Commerce City - North Denver web page to find out how.
• Learn about:
• Hydrogen cyanide
• Improving your indoor air quality
• Quitting tobacco
• Reducing your cancer risk
• Preventing disease and increasing wellness

Send us feedback on this project. We want to hear from you!