THE TOXIC EAST SIDE
Air, cancer risk linked
in some Houston areas

From the Houston Chronicle:

People living in some east Harris County neighborhoods, the East End and parts of Texas City are at greater risk of contracting cancer because of toxic chemicals released by the region's industrial plants, according to a state analysis of 2003 air quality data.

State air pollution monitors in Texas City, Galena Park, Houston's East End, Deer Park, Channelview and at the Lynchburg Ferry detected levels of three hazardous chemicals that, if inhaled during a lifetime, would likely generate 29 to 199 additional cases of cancer in a million people. Under normal circumstances, there is a risk of one additional case of cancer developing in a population of 1,000,000.

"These polluters don't own the air. They have no right to endanger the lives of citizens downwind," said Houston Mayor Bill White on Wednesday. "We need tougher regulations and need them enforced."

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Man, oh, man. I lived in that area for six years. I'm glad I got out: the report says that the risk factor only comes into play over the course of an entire lifetime, so I guess I'm off the hook. Or am I? I know that, on the whole, air pollution levels throughout the country are actually higher than they are believed to be because the Environmental Protection Agency, understaffed and underfunded by our environmentally conscious Republican White House, is unable to adequately test the vast majority of polluting industries. Consequently, the EPA relies on industry to self-report and you can bet your booty that industry is doing everything it can, short of actually reducing toxic emissions, to keep those numbers down.

When I was teaching in Baytown, also in east Harris County, it always seemed to me that my students reported an unusually high number of friends, family members, and acquaintances, who either were born with some sort of bizarre defect, contracted an unusual cancer, or suffered from asthma. Of course, personal experience is not statistical data, and I didn't want to think of myself working in a toxic chemical stew pot, so I just tried to assume it was my imagination. I'm beginning to think I was right: Houston's east side may very well be much worse than even this report indicates.

And it will probably get worse despite local efforts to clean up the air. After all, the President is a pimp for the oil industry.

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