The Air In A Houston Neighborhood Has Scientists Worried

[Guest guest]

http://www.khou.com/news/upclose/STORY.eb2e433514.93.88.83.fb.15898c0f.html

The Air In A Houston Neighborhood Has Scientists Worried

A dangerous chemical could be damaging the DNA of the people who live there

01/07/2002

By Dave Fehling / 11 News

Click to watch video

Do you really know what's in the air out there? There are disturbing details

about what scientists are finding in one Houston neighborhood.

It's called Manchester. It's a very old neighborhood with working class

families.

Carol Alvarado knows it well. " I grew up right here in this neighborhood, "

she said.

A Houston neighborhood where growing up meant living right next door to some

of the world's biggest petrochemical plants. They weren't always the easiest

of neighbors.

Alvarado said, " Historically, there had been little contact, little

information provided to the community about what was being produced, what

chemicals were being handled. "

Over the years, things did change. One change was an air monitor installed

above a nearby park to record exactly what chemicals were blowing in the

wind.

What has it found? Something no neighbor would want to breathe: a chemical

called butadiene.

According to state environmental officials, nowhere in Texas have air

monitors picked up levels of butadiene like they've picked up in the

southeast corner of Houston.

The official who wrote an internal memo was concerned that butadiene levels

had spiked several times in 2000. Where the butadiene was coming from could

be anyone's guess. Chemical plants up and down the Houston ship channel

produce and use it for making plastic and synthetic rubber.

Its danger is more certain. The state scientist wrote that more detailed

testing was needed because: " short-term exposure to high butadiene levels

may increase the risk of reproductive and developmental effects. "

What exactly does butadiene do to people? Butadiene is notorious for its

suspected link to leukemia. And no one in Texas knows more about what

butadiene can do to the human body than a group of scientists in Galveston.

Marinel Ammenheuser with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston

said, " We are looking at the molecular structure of the DNA. "

Instead of waiting for people to die from leukemia as with many such

studies, scientists at UTMB used a new method that provided much quicker

results.

The scientists took blood samples from workers at a butadiene plant near

Beaumont. They then analyzed the individual blood cells to see if they had

the sort of damage or mutation that can lead, years later, to leukemia.

Ammenheuser said, " We certainly found it in subjects exposed to butadiene.

They had about a threefold higher level of DNA damage. "

Lead researcher with UTMB, Galveston, Ward says their study seems

to be more evidence of a butadiene link to leukemia among chemical workers,

but what about the risk to residents.

Ward said, " Its very difficult to say anything specific about the risks to

people outside plants. One of the things we know about chemicals of this

sort that cause genetic changes are cumulative from the very lowest

exposures on up. So at least theoretically, there's some increase in risk

from those people. "

But Ward points out the same thing state scientists did, that getting a

better idea of the risk would take far more air monitoring than what they

get from the devices which check the air only once a week.

Texas has by far the nation's biggest concentration of plants that make or

use butadiene. For its part, industry says it's well aware of the leukemia

studies and has, in the past five years, spent millions to reduce leaks.

McGraw with the Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers said, " You put

in new types of pump seals, other types of control technologies. (Dave) Have

emissions been reduced? (McGraw) Oh, emissions have reduced significantly. "

Be that as it may, what troubles Manchester neighborhood native Carol

Alvarado is, she had to hear about all this from 11 News.

" I guess had you not been investigating this issue, we might not have

known, " said Alvarado.

Alvarado is in the position to do something because as of last week, she

became City Council member Carol Alvarado. She plans to ask the state to

step up its testing. Because the people who live in Manchester need to know

what's blowing in the wind.

What about those workers whose blood cells showed signs of mutation?

Researchers say that doesn't mean they'll develop leukemia in coming years,

only that their risk has increased.

An industry group, the American Chemistry Council, says some studies of

workers in other countries have failed to show that butadiene exposure

causes genetic damage.