Your health can depend on where you live
Hazardous facilities are too often found in lower-income neighborhoods
T he residents of Houston’s Fifth Ward live among several sources of harmful pollution: concrete batch plants, metal recycling facilities, Superfund sites and a railyard that was once home to a chemical plant.
Not coincidentally, many of them are dealing with cardiovascular and respiratory problems — and even cancer.
In early December, some 240,000 gallons of crude oil and some 30,000 gallons of sludge spilled near homes in the southwest part of the city. Residents reported headaches, nausea and burning eyes. A nearby elementary school shut down a wing of the building, closed its air vents and prohibited children from going outside for several days.
Health and place are inextricably linked. If you drive around Houston, it is clear to see the health and safety risks that are the product of our inadequate land-use policies.
Research indicates that an individual’s ZIP code is a stronger predictor than their genetic code of how long they will live. For years, science has shown that living in close proximity to environmental hazards contributes to a range of poor health outcomes, including asthma, childhood cancer and lower birth weights.
If this is the case, why do we continue to allow hazardous facilities to be built near homes, schools, childcare centers and other places where we work and play in Houston?
This reality was painfully clear during Harvey. Industrial facilities released more than 2 million pounds of extra pollution into the air, exposing residents to dangerous levels of cancer-causing chemicals and ground-level ozone, or smog.
In Crosby, officials evacuated a neighborhood because of a series of explosions at a flooded chemical plant and the threat of exposure to toxic air from the facility. Schools and local health systems have since reported higher than usual respiratory illness.
And, as a post-Harvey survey conducted by the Episcopal Health Foundation highlights, residents are now reporting an increase in health issues, with 13 percent of residents reporting that a member of their household has a new or worsening health condition due to the storm, rising to 17 percent among those who suffered property or income losses.
As decision makers struggle to reconcile the consequences of Houston’s land-use policy decisions (or the absence thereof ), Harvey must serve as our collective awakening. Any dialogue concerning the city’s growth in a post-Harvey era should include serious conversations about where environmentally burdensome facilities like concrete batch plants, metal recycling facilities, chemical plants and refineries can be located in the future.
In Harris County alone, there are more than a hundred schools and childcare centers within one mile of large toxic facilities, putting the health and safety of our most vulnerable at risk.
It is also well documented that many communities with lower incomes, such as the East End, experience a higher risk of air pollutionrelated health problems like cancer, heart disease and respiratory issues. A recent study by the Clean Air Task Force and NAACP found that Texas is home to one of the largest populations of African Americans living within a half-mile of active oil and gas wells and processing plants.
These facilities create an ongoing public health problem due to chronic exposures to air pollution, while also decreasing property values, particularly in communities where they are heavily concentrated. Because home ownership is the primary route to establish and build wealth for most people, continuing to allow the overconcentration of hazardous facilities in communities that, historically, not only have less wealth but also fewer opportunities to build wealth, further depresses the development and transfer of wealth to future generations, perpetuating a long history of inequalities.
It is long overdue for the city of Houston to limit the proximity of these sites in all neighborhoods. Fairness, equity and science should be the foundation upon which Houston develops after Harvey to ensure a healthy future for all.