By Erwin Seba
HOUSTON (Reuters) – High levels of a cancer-causing chemical have been detected in air monitors in Houston neighborhoods near the busiest U.S. petrochemical port, according to a report issued on Thursday by city of Houston health officials and environmental groups.
The report by the Houston Health Department and One Breath Partnership said they found concentrations of formaldehyde up to 13 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s minimum level for health threats.
It recommended that permitting of plants and control of chemicals that contribute to formaldehyde formation be more tightly regulated. Formaldehyde levels appear to be increasing in Houston as the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s air monitoring sampling frequency is decreasing, the report said.
Formaldehyde is released by refineries, chemical plants and automobiles, and can arise from emissions of the hydrocarbons ethylene, propylene and isoprene along with other volatile organic compounds.
The Houston Health Department between September 2019 and September 2020 tested an the area along the Houston Ship Channel that is home to several petrochemical plants and five crude oil refineries that account for 8% of U.S. refining capacity
The highest concentrations of formaldehyde found “would translate to about one additional cancer case per 77,000 people, according to the Houston Health Department’s assessment of EPA’s cancer risk formulas,” the report said.
A 2014 assessment of toxic substances in the air by the EPA found “formaldehyde is the highest contributing chemical to cancer risk in 89% of census tracts” in the Houston area, according to the report.
Formaldehyde helps the formation of ground-level ozone, which is related to increased rates of cardiac arrest and asthma, the report said.
The report suggests that federal and state agencies consider increased formaldehyde monitoring, making the analysis of the results available so the risk may be better understood.
(Reporting by Erwin Seba; Editing by Leslie Adler)
