More than 100 Houston residents took to the Texas Capitol this week to plead with the agency to protect them from environmental hazards. Reports from over the years have indicated that Black People in Houston fight cancer, and die from higher concentrations of industrial hazards in their neighborhoods.
The residents have blamed deaths and health complications they bear on the agency’s failure to regulate industrial emissions from the Union Pacific Railroad that has created a cancer cluster in the predominantly Black Fifth Ward.
A 2019 study by the Texas Department of State Health Services found higher rates of respiratory cancers in the areas compared to typical rates. That includes elevated rates of esophagus, larynx, and lung cancers.
The residents are accusing the state of failing to protect predominantly Black and Hispanic communities from what they call environmental racism. The residents have accused the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality of failing to properly screen permits for industrial plants and authorizing 150 concrete plants near residential areas, schools, and churches. It is reported that the chemicals produced by these industries have evolved into hazardous and deadly toxins that have been responsible for the high cancer cases and deaths.
