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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, NOVEMBER 17, 2019
BY ROSE ADAMS
Coney Islanders are demanding
the city study the
air quality around the People’s
Playground, claiming
respiratory illnesses
abound in the years following
Superstorm Sandy.
“We see more and more
people getting respiratory
issues,” said Eddie Mark,
the district manager of the
local community board.
“Something is wrong.”
Community board members
have asked reps for
the Department of Health
to study a perceived rise in
respiratory illnesses — including
asthma, shortness
of breath, and persistent
coughing — that locals began
started complaining
about in the wake of the
2012 storm, which kicked up
a blizzard of dust and debris
that was blamed for the socalled
“ Sandy cough ” that
swept the peninsula.
“People got this cough
that they couldn’t get rid of,”
said Pamela Pettyjohn, a Coney
Island resident who has
suffered from a persistent
cough since the storm struck
seven years ago. “These
were people that were perfectly
healthy before Sandy.
What’s happening now?”
Sandy’s 13-foot tidal
surges were also responsible
for rampant mold outbreaks,
and locals also fear that the
overfl ow of the notoriously
contaminated Coney Island
Creek during the hurricane
may have unleashed toxic
particles into the air.
The 2012 Superstorm
isn’t the only possible
cause, and the respiratory
illnesses may fi nd their
root in ongoing construction
projects and the neighborhood’s
crumbling public
housing infrastructure ,
where mold runs rampant.
And another cause could
be the area’s high levels
of ozone pollutants, which
rank consistently as some
of the worst in the city, according
to an eight-year Department
of Health study .
Ozone contamination
can cause shortness of
breath, asthma, and a slew
of other respiratory issues,
according to the EPA , and
a recent study by the University
of Washington determined
that living in an
Coney Island resident Pamela Pettyjohn has suffered from a persistent cough since Sandy struck
seven years ago. Photo by Derrick Watterson
area with high ozone levels
is the equivalent of smoking
a pack of cigarettes a day.
But by all other measures,
Coney Island’s air
isn’t particularly unhealthy
— the neighborhood even
boasts lower levels of the
most harmful air pollutant,
fi ne particulate matter,
than the average Brooklyn
neighborhood, according to
a 2016 study .
Moreover, a pulmonary
specialist at the Coney Island
Hospital said that he
hasn’t noticed an uptick in
new patients after the storm
or in the years since.
A spokesman for the
Health Department did not
comment regarding the
agency’s plans to conduct
a study, but said that other
studies have indicated that
Coney Islanders suffer from
lower levels of asthma than
the average Brooklynite.
But locals don’t feel
healthier than other communities,
and say the
“Sandy cough” has been going
on long enough to warrant
the city taking action.
“This has been going
on for several years,” said
Brighton Beach resident
Jeff Sanoff, whose wife has
developed asthma. “We
haven’t been given any reports
on air quality...They
keep us in the dark.”
Coney leaders demand
air-quality study following
Superstorm Sandy
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