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Statement Of Carol Zernial
Environmental Protection Agency
Aging Initiative Public Listening Session
San Antonio, Texas
April 8, 2003
Carol Zernial
Director, Alamo Council of Governments
Bexar County Area Agency on Aging
Director, Alamo Council of Governments
Bexar County Area Agency on Aging
Good afternoon, Mr. Edlund and distinguished panel members. I would like to thank the Environmental Protection Agency and the Administration on Aging for bringing the need to plan for the future of our seniors and the future of our environment as our aging population doubles by the year 2030 to the forefront of your agendas. We have spent the past year working with Texas A&M and Cornell University on a planning grant to address these issues. Certainly, planning is the key and it must take several forms.
First, we must address those issues that we know pose a threat to persons as they grow older, for example, aluminum in the drinking water. According to one report, there are nineteen epidemiology studies and one food study linking aluminum to Alzheimer's or elderly cognitive impairment. It has also been linked to brain injury to babies and dialysis patients, bone damage to middle-aged persons and anemia. One of those studies estimates that a 50 to 70 percent reduction in rates can be achieved just through reduction of drinking water aluminum levels. Lowering the incidence of Alzheimer's would have a profound effect on reducing the impending burden for health care under Medicare and Medicaid. The fastest growing segment of the population is the old-old or those over eighty-five. Up to half of those aged 85 and over suffer from some form of dementia. Environmental remedies that can lower the incidence of dementia are critical.
Second, we must investigate those issues that we suspect are dangerous, such as common household cleaners and pesticides. I remember very clearly an older couple I visited early in my career. The couple was in their late sixties to early seventies. The man was blind, an amputee with multiple chronic health conditions he had developed over a lifetime of working at the local paper mill. When he was no longer able to work, his wife had taken a cleaning job at a local health facility. I was called in to visit her after she also had to go on disability. She had been asked to test some new "super industrial" cleaners at the hospital. After only a few weeks, she developed severe pulmonary problems that left her unable to work or to assist her husband who depended on her to lift and change him. These cleaners had caused a severe allergic reaction and compromised her health. I remember this couple very well because the windows of their small home were broken and they lived across the street from the paper mill and its giant smokestacks. The entire house was filled with strong chemical vapors that stung my nose for days after my visit.
Finally, we must make planning for senior friendly communities a priority whose net effect will be a better environment for everyone. With the development of suburbs has come an increased dependence on the automobile, and subsequent air pollution. Community planners have allowed cities to develop down the long access roads and major thoroughfares, challenging the ability of local public transit to serve the populations spread out over miles and miles. Trees are sacrificed for large parking lots. Long-distances between businesses, super-sized stores, and giant parking lots are extremely difficult to negotiate for many seniors who have mobility problems. Our newest suburbs are not friendly to pedestrians. The highest rates of pedestrian fatalities are found the more recently developed communities. One study showed that pedestrians in the newer areas of Ft. Lauderdale face risks eleven times higher than those in older, metropolitan Pittsburgh. Seniors are more vulnerable as pedestrians with a death rate almost twice that of the general public and more vulnerable as passengers in automobiles, more likely to dies from injuries sustained in traffic accidents than those younger. Safe, accessible walkways are key. And an environment that is unfriendly to pedestrians can contribute to poor health. Americans in particular walk less that their cohorts in other countries that are less dependent upon the automobile.
The lack of transportation is not the only problem for seniors caught in suburban sprawl. Appropriate housing is also an issue. Single-family homes are currently the standard of living in this country. These homes require more land and more resources. Housing alternatives gain importance as persons age such as group homes, adult care foster homes, congregate housing and assisted housing. These building are treated as multi-family housing and sometimes segregated from communities through zoning laws. A study in Minnesota looked at what is needed to make a community support an individual over the entire lifecycle. Inner cities may have to address pollution and crime. Older suburbs may new senior housing, transportation, and zoning regulations to facilitate neighborhood commercial development. Mixed land use is also good for the environment, for example, convenience stores next to suburban developments and neighborhood commercial districts. Seniors could then walk to grocery stores, pharmacies, medical clinics and retail shopping decreasing the need for cars, public transportation, or some form of assistance just to complete normal activities of daily life.
The United Nations Chronicle has stated "no lasting solution to problems of the environment can be found without resolving population issues." The links between population and the environment must address important demographic trends such as urbanization, migration, and aging. It concludes that "the everyday activities of all human beings, communities and countries are interrelated with population change, patterns and levels of use of natural resources, the state of the environment, and the ..quality of economic and social development." We must "meet the needs of the current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs." This initiative embodies all of these thoughts and its outcomes must be widely disseminated across a variety of disciplines. There is indeed a link between aging and the environment. There is a link to quality of life for the current aging generation and generations to follow. Recognizing the importance of that link will lead to better health, greater independence, and communities that can be a home over the entire course of an ever growing lifespan.