Results From Health Study Due in Spring: To Focus on Impact of Logan Airport

Town officials are awaiting the results of a Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) study of the environmental impacts of Logan Airports on the health of Winthrop residents.

“We’re anticipating the DPH report by the end of the spring,” said Anthony Majahad, chairman of the Winthrop Airport Hazards Committee. “Actually everybody is waiting for it – Massport, the Mass. House and Senate, and local town officials are really interested in it.”

Majahad said the study will look at the health impacts on residents living in communities within a five-mile radius.

“The DPH conducted a health survey of 6,000 participants,” said Majahad.

The chairman said that the late Brian Dumser, a former member of the Airport Hazards Committee, initiated a similar study in 1999. Dumser held a doctorate in physiology and was a industrial hygienist at UMass/Boston.

“Brian did his own study in 1999 and surveyed the residents on Court Road and he found there was an increase in respiratory ailments for those residents,” said Majahad.

Majahad said the DPH study is “a very sophisticated” one and no one else in the country is conducting an environmental study of this magnitude.

“It’s a groundbreaking study,” said Majahad. “We’ve met with Suzanne Condon of the DPH and she’s really very good at what she does and we’re excited that we’re going to have a great study and such important results coming our way. This has been three years in the making and we’re looking forward to reading the study and having a professional evaluate the results and make recommendations.”