Toxic heavy metals

The maps below show areas with elevated levels of cadmium, arsenic, lead and nickel based on 2013 data. They were drawn from low resolution copies of U.S. Forest Service and Oregon Departmentof Environmental Quality maps; boundaries shown are not precise. For cadmium, the state estimated concentrations in the air above the state health benchmark of .6 nanograms per cubic meter. For arsenic, nickel and lead, the colors reflect the volume of heavy metals in moss and have not been translated to specific health risks.

Cadmium

Nanograms per cubic meter of air

Arsenic

Micrograms per dry kilogram of moss

Lead

Micrograms per dry kilogram of moss

Nickel

Micrograms per dry kilogram of moss





The following graphics show toxic air trends in Portland and La Grande. The values are compared to the Health Benchmark, which is the level at which an individual has a 1-in-a-million chance of developing cancer when exposed over a lifetime. Until 2013, Oregon’s only two air toxics monitoring stations were in North Portland and La Grande. A third was installed in Hillsboro in 2013, and a fourth just went live on Swan Island; neither has been active long enough to collect reliable data.

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