Residents target airport at community health forum

Matt Bower
Posted 10/7/14

It should come as no surprise that T.F. Green Airport was front and center as the number one health issue on the minds of Warwick residents at the public forum hosted by the Rhode Island Department …

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Residents target airport at community health forum

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It should come as no surprise that T.F. Green Airport was front and center as the number one health issue on the minds of Warwick residents at the public forum hosted by the Rhode Island Department of Health (HEALTH) at the Pilgrim Senior Center last Thursday.

HEALTH began holding community health forums around the state to find out what people want from HEALTH and what areas in their community need to be addressed in order to become healthier.

The latest forum, at the Pilgrim Senior Center, was the fourth held so far and, according to organizers, had the best turnout to date. More than 60 people attended the event to voice their concerns about health in Warwick and Rhode Island.

Following introductions by Mayor Scott Avedisian and HEALTH Director Dr. Michael Fine, the audience was split into groups and given a set of three questions to discuss before sharing with the rest of the audience which issues if felt need to be addressed and how to go about it.

“The Health Department will take the information you provide tonight and analyze it and create a Warwick city report that will be released to the community,” said Jeanne Gattegno, former director of Westbay Community Action program, who served as moderator for the evening.

She said people shouldn’t have to worry about what they say, as their feedback would be collected on an anonymous basis.

From air quality and higher rates of lung cancer in airport neighborhoods to airport expansion and passenger screenings, with the recent news that a man flying from Liberia may have lied about his health conditions before entering the U.S., the airport was the focus of much of the discussion.

“The air quality in the airport area is not sufficient,” one woman said.

“With the airport, Warwick has become a city of airplanes,” another woman said. “Does anyone check the health conditions of people getting on and off the airplanes?”

People complained of airplane fumes and how they discolor their houses, which often have to be power-washed. A Gaspee Point resident said her neighbors have gone through that process.

People also expressed concerns with the high incidence of lung disease in neighborhoods around the airport.

“We’re breathing that in,” one woman said in reference to fumes.

Another woman complained her kitchen was covered with a layer of dirt from airport related construction when she left her window open to get some fresh air.

“There’s no buffer zone [to the airport],” she said.

The audience agreed that neighborhoods around the airport need the most help as far as getting healthier.

“Air traffic has gone down but they want to expand the airport,” a woman said. “The airport is bad for everybody, but especially Buttonwoods, Governor Francis Farms, Oakland Beach, Conimicut, and the southeast and eastern shores.”

One woman who used to live near the airport said she moved when she had kids.

“That’s no place to raise a family,” she said.

In addition to higher rates of lung cancer in neighborhoods around the airport, it was also mentioned that asthma rates in children have increased in the same areas.

The audience said the Health Department should offer more programs and conduct more studies on diseases that are affecting Warwick citizens.

“Why is the cancer rate so high in the state,” one audience member wanted to know.

Another suggestion was to have more emissions controls on airplanes and develop ways to make controlling emissions safer, as well as watching more closely the monitoring of emissions at the airport.

While Fine said the cancer rate in Rhode Island has returned to average, he said it’s difficult to determine whether the high rates of lung cancer in neighborhoods around the airport is due to air quality or smoking.

According to Robert Vanderslice of the Health Department, a study was performed in Warwick that found that the areas around the airport also had double the rate of smokers.

Other concerns the audience mentioned included: Access to affordable health coverage, as co-pays and out-of-pocket expenses are rising; transportation, listing cost and duration as factors; more oversight and better wages for elderly caregivers and nursing home personnel; and cracking down on obesity by providing more activities and healthy living programs and market them so people are aware they exist.

Related to access to affordable health care, there was also a concern that not enough doctors are available to take care of patients and people fear losing their primary care physician.

“Many times you see a physician’s assistant instead of the doctor,” a woman said, adding that the continuity of care between assistants and physicians needs to be improved, as often information doesn’t get relayed.

In order to combat this problem, the suggestion was made to encourage more doctors to come to Rhode Island through a loan forgiveness program and to offer incentives for primary care physicians, as happens with physicians in specialized fields. As a way to improve the standard of care a patient receives, consequences for poor treatment were suggested.

As for transportation issues, there were concerns over distance being a problem and cost of public transportation being an obstacle, especially for seniors who are suffering due to transportation cutbacks.

“Rhode Island is the smallest state in the country, but unless you’re going to the beaches, you can’t get anywhere,” one man said. “It’s a 2-and-a-half-hour bus ride each way. We need more buses and bus stops.”

With regard to caring for the elderly, many said there needs to be more oversight with caregivers and suggested a raise in wages to attract a better quality caregiver.

“If they’re paid more, they’ll care more,” one woman said.

It was also suggested that there should be unannounced visits to nursing homes to monitor them, as “hygiene is terrible and they aren’t taking precautions.”

There were also concerns about the health of children. Suggestions to improve health at schools included having kids wash their hands each day when they arrive at school and having a universal breakfast program available to all students.

Although the airport dominated most of the discussion, bay contamination was also brought up because it leads to beach closures, which affect quahoggers, who lose work, and restaurants, who lose business because no one is going to the beaches. More education on why beaches are closed was requested.

In addition to providing more programs and activities to keep people moving, one suggestion was to create more walking areas, as the track at Pilgrim High School is in poor condition and many are afraid to use City Park after a jogger was found murdered there.

“Since we already have swimming at McDermott Pool and skating at the [Thayer Arena] ice rink, maybe we could put some walking areas in behind it and make that area a wellness center,” one woman said.

Fine thanked everyone for coming out and participating in the forum.

“You’ve been exceptional,” he said, describing the audience as good speakers and creative thinkers. “Some of the things you listed, we’re already doing.”

Fine said although it doesn’t happen as often as people would like, nursing homes are investigated.

He said the Health Department doesn’t legally have control over the amount of doctors being cut from health coverage plans.

“Limited networks are good because it saves money, but they’re bad because they limit options,” he said. “Access and low costs don’t often go together.”

Fine said he would like to build a primary care practice for every 10,000 people in a community that could work together with local health departments, which don’t presently exist in the state, to provide care to the community.

“Rhode Island is unique because we don’t have local health departments, like many states do,” he said. “Our primary care practices are our local health departments.”

Someone asked why there wasn’t one centralized cancer center in the state.

“The more we can put hospitals together, the more we can centralize services,” Fine said. “We need to discuss that and come together about what we want to do. Rhode Island is in difficult economic times and we need to decide what we want to address.”

Fine said 30 percent of health care costs are for services that are not needed and encouraged audience members to be more aware of what they actually need by working with their primary care doctor.

“Health is what communities are, what they do and how they function,” he said. “Our goal is to create a culture of health.”

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  • RoyDempsey

    It sounds like Avedisian was there for introductions, it does not say whether he stayed or participated. Most likely he left. Avedisian did not show up at all for the session on air monitoring at the Button Woods Center last week. Completely out of touch. A hands off attitude, detrimental to all of us.

    Tuesday, October 7, 2014 Report this