Summer In Houston - Air Pollution Nearly 2X National Standards

[hatrack]

COLLEGE STATION, Texas, April 15, 2004 (ENS) – "Houston's air pollution levels are nearly double the national standard during summer days, smog concentrations that could pose a serious health risk to the city's inhabitants unless controlled, a Texas A&M University researcher has found.

Renyi Zhang, associate professor of atmospheric sciences, modeled Houston's air during the summer months. He found that at night, the city's ozone level was near zero, but during the day it zoomed to more than 200 parts per billion (ppb), far higher than the U.S. standard of 120 ppb.

The reason for the high daytime rating, Zhang says, can be traced to the huge refineries and petrochemical complexes in the area, plus the large amount of auto exhaust in Harris County. The highest ozone levels were found around the city's southeastern edge near the huge petrochemical plants. "These plants emit large amounts of highly reactive volatile organic compounds and nitric oxides," Zhang says. "At midday, the ozone readings are very high because of the industrial emissions, coupled with auto exhaust. It creates very big problems for Houston's air, and ozone levels are far above acceptable federal standards."

EDIT

The fourth largest U.S. city, Houston has one of the worst ozone levels in the country, due to the fact that 50 percent of the nation's petroleum refining capability is within the city limits. "There are around five million people in the greater Houston area, and many of these people could have health problems associated with breathing bad air, such as emphysema and asthma," Zhang explains."

EDIT

http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=30836

[happyending]

1. ;)

Bush gassed his own people.

[XNASA]

2. Pollution was the main reason we left Houston.

Our poor kids really suffered, asthma, etc. We lived in the Clear Lake area, which was quite nice, but located between the petrochemical plants in Pasadena and Texas City. The air smelled like paint thinner, all the time.

It's too bad. It was the best job I ever had but we had to think of our health.

[Gothmog]

3. Houston smog is horrible at times.

It is tough living in Houston at times.

[Maestro]

4. I am disgusted at what is happening

to my Texas. The smog here in the Dallas area has just gotten horrible. Just 15 years ago we didn't have it, but since then repubes have slowly gained control and relaxed rules for major industries while at the same time, Texas and especially D/FW, Austin and San Antonio have experienced huge population increases. We have stricter car emissions now in many counties but still major industries still do not have to upgrade their systems with the new laws put in place by Bush and now his republican successor, Perry.

Meanwhile the US air just keeps getting dirtier.

[Boomer]

5. Good-bye to Austin

I grew up in Austin, and I would move back in a heartbeat -- if it bore any resemblance to the small city it was during the 1950s.

Unfortunately, the Austin of my chidhold has been completely erased by an expensive, congested, overgrown metroplex that stretches practically to San Antonio. My local neighborhood shopping center is now a pretentious upscale block of boutiques painted in tasteful terra-cotta colors. Streets are clogged with traffic, low-income housing and rentals are fast disappearing, real estate prices and property taxes are skyrocketing under a flood of high-tech, high-income newcomers, and the old townie culture and history are but a faint memory.

I moved to West Virginia to find a town that reminds me of my hometown, only to find that the Washington metroplex is just as surely marching toward the panhandle. Another decade or two and it will be lapping at the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. I'm not sure they'll be any small town left for me to find by then.

Of course, it's that way all across the country. Diversity is being destroyed by the relentless wave of humanity that is developing every square acre of land into an urban nightmare.

--Boomer

[Maestro]

6. That is one of the reasons I moved

to Midlothian, TX about 35 miles south of Dallas near Waxahachie. The town planners are not allowing that kind of sprawl. Most neighborhoods are built around the idea that the owner has at least a 1/2 acre to deal with. Many have more than that. There is a ban on apartments and any custom home builders are the norm not the exception. Unfortunately, I have to deal with air pollution has there are several cement plants in town and a steel plant. But hey, I have longhorns in my backyard.

[Tims]

7. I drive into Southwest Houston

every day. I live about 20 miles south of Sugar Land, which is a major suburb of Houston (also the home on Tom Delay). About 7 miles outside of Sugar Land there is a visible yellow-brown layer of smog hanging in the air about a hundred feet above the ground all through the summer months. Although I in no way wish to imply the oil refineries are guiltless, the main reason for the pollution is automobiles. Houston has resisted all efforts to require emission testing for automobiles or any other effort to reduce auto emissions. While Dubya was governor, both the speed limit restrictions within the city limits of Houston and mandatory emission testing that had been imposed to reduce pollution were lifted with his support and blessings, but no alternative plan was put in place or even proposed. Thank you GW for your concern for my health. Is it any wonder George Sr. spends his summers in Kenebunkport (yeah I know its hot here, but he lived a sizable portion of is life in Midland for Pete sake, so it can't just be the heat).

What this report failed to say was there are about 5 million people in Houston and an un-godly number of them drive Hummers.