Health survey taken in cancer cluster
City officials go door to door in community affected by toxins
A few dozen residents and city health officials conducted a door-to-door health survey of homes affected by creosote contamination in a north Houston neighborhood Saturday.
Groundwater beneath 110 properties near the Englewood Rail Yard in North Houston are contaminated with creosote, a probable carcinogen according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The preservative was used for decades to treat wood railroad ties at the yard, and over time, seeped into the ground and formed a plume that, in recent years, has moved beneath homes in the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods.
A Texas State Department of Health Services assessment in August identified a cancer cluster in the historically black area, finding higher than expected rates of lung and bronchus, esophagus and larynx cancers in 10 census tracts near the rail yard between 2000 and 2016.
The City of Houston Health Department, at the request of community advocates, conducted health interviews with residents of those 110 properties on Saturday. The goal was to obtain more data about the types of cancer as well as get a more detailed understanding of the peo
ple who have been affected by cancer in the area.
“We only know that there is contamination in the area and a cancer cluster,” said Loren Hopkins, the Houston Health Department’s chief environmental science officer. “We don’t know how long they lived here or who they are. We need the information to better understand this, and this is the only way to do it.”
Hopkins said the city will complete an analysis of the survey results and provide that report to the community as well as the state health department.
The report, she said, will hopefully be an important step toward supporting a study to understand if there is a causal relationship between the higher rates of cancer in the area and the creosote contamination.
The state’s cancer cluster analysis cannot prove what caused the observed cancers, and only relies on a person’s address at the time of which they were diagnosed.
The city’s health survey, in contrast, will include individuals who may have moved out of the area at a later date, since the survey includes questions about relatives and family members who are deceased or who have left the area.
The City of Houston sampled drinking water in the area in July and found it to be safe. Still, residents in the area remain concerned that past exposure to harmful contaminants from the site is what has caused higher cancer rates in the area in recent years. Some of the residents who completed the survey said they were glad the city was there, but still expressed a sense of hopelessness about the situation. It’s too little too late.
“Everyone around here died with cancer,” said Alberta Smith, 80, a resident of the area whose husband and son died of cancer. “There’s nothing we can do about it. I think it’s bad, but nobody can help us but (God).”
Politicians and environmental advocates, following the results of the cancer cluster analysis, have called for more testing of other potential means of exposure as well as more remediation efforts of the contamination and potentially compensation for those affected. U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston, will host a town hall with environmental experts including Erin Brockovich, a well-known environmental advocate, as well as local and state agencies to bring more attention to the issue as well as discuss potential reparations on Jan. 21.
“We can’t let this be the definition of this community in this decade,” Jackson Lee said Saturday. “This has to be serious. There has to be a way of making them whole.”
Representatives of Union Pacific, the company that currently owns the rail yard and is responsible for environmental remediation efforts of the creosote, is expected to attend the community meeting later this month.
“We only know that there is contamination in the area and a cancer cluster. We don’t know how long they lived here or who they are. We need the information to better understand this, and this is the only way to do it.” Loren Hopkins, Houston Health Department chief environmental science officer