Benzene Air Pollution In Channelview Exceeds Even Texas' Lax Standard; State Isn't Even Monitoring The Known Carcnogen

Dangerously high levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene continue to plague Channelview, Texas, despite warnings from state regulators that began almost 20 years ago. Data collected during the state’s most recent air monitoring trips include one benzene reading that was three times the Texas hourly guideline, the weakest in the nation. In two instances, benzene fumes were so strong that scientists with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, or TCEQ, experienced headaches and had to leave the area.

The scientists visited Channelview, an unincorporated community east of Houston, in 2021 and 2022, but the TCEQ didn’t finalize its reports on the findings until this year. Public Health Watch obtained them through open records requests. Nearly half of the one-hour averages the TCEQ’s mobile monitoring team recorded exceeded what California says is safe. Three were at least 20 times higher than California allows.

The readings also exceeded what is considered safe by the city of Houston, which created its own benzene guidelines in 2020. If the levels found in Channelview had been recorded there, residents would have received one evacuation order, eight shelter-in-place orders and eight alerts. Channelview residents received no notifications. Short encounters with high levels of benzene can cause drowsiness, dizziness and unconsciousness, while chronic exposure has long been linked to leukemia and other blood cancers. Recent studies also link the chemical to diabetes and reproductive problems.

A TCEQ spokesperson said the Texas guidelines are “well below” the level where the state has determined health effects occur. Those guidelines are based on a handful of scientific studies from the 1980s and 1990s. The more stringent Houston guidelines are based on a peer-reviewed paper that evaluated 20 studies published between 2009 and 2019. The TCEQ spokesperson said the agency has reviewed the science supporting benzene guidelines used by other institutions, but none of it has “warranted a reevaluation of TCEQ’s” guidelines. “Just because a scientific study is more recent does not make it the best scientific evidence,” the spokesperson said.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/17122024/houston-cancer-causing-benzene-air-pollution/