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Houston We Have A Problem
May 1, 2008
Texas residents are exposed to 14 known "toxic hotspots" that are not being addressed currently by industry, federal regulators and state officials and will require a major initiative to protect the public's health, according to a new report issued today by Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), Industry Professionals for Clean Air, Houston; Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Austin; and Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), Austin. Using Houston - where industry today misses the Houston mayor's May 1, 2008 deadline for cleaning up certain toxic air emissions - as a case study to illustrate the threat to Lone Star state residents, the study also identifies 13 other Texas areas as "toxic hot spots" (in alphabetical order): Bastrop, Beaumont, Bowie/Cass County, Corpus Christi, Dallas, El Paso, Evadale (Jasper County), Freeport, Galena Park and Lynchburg Ferry (Harris County), Port Arthur, Port Neches and Texas City. The dangerous airborne pollutants with long- and short-term health effects in these communities include arsenic, benzene, butyraldehyde, hydrogen sulfide, styrene, and more than half a dozen others with known adverse health impacts.
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