US oil refineries spewing cancer-causing benzene into communities, report finds | Air pollution

A dozen US oil refineries last yr exceeded the federal limit on common benzene emissions.

Among the 12 refineries that emitted above the utmost degree for benzene, five have been in Texas, 4 in Louisiana, and one every in Pennsylvania, Indiana and the US Virgin Islands, a new evaluation by the Environmental Integrity Mission revealed on Thursday.

Benzene is a identified carcinogen that is highly toxic and risky when uncovered to air. Much of the surplus emissions come by way of leaks from valves, tanks, pumps and different means which are hard to detect.

The Environmental Safety Company estimates 6.1 million individuals in the US reside within three miles of a refinery, with low-income people and people of colour represented at rates nearly twice that of the overall population.

Out of 129 operable oil refineries in 2021, 118 reported benzene concentration registered at or near the positioning, in any other case often known as the fence-line.

Nearly half of those refineries released benzene levels above 3 micrograms per cubic meter, which the Environmental Integrity Mission defines as a long-term potential health menace.

The EPA requires facilities to take motion if they exceed a median 9 micrograms per cubic meter, or above “action level” emission of benzene.

“If [facilities] can’t get their benzene under the action stage, 12 months after yr, we actually need to see enforcement from the EPA,” mentioned Eric Schaeffer, the chief director of the Environmental Integrity Mission, in a press convention. “You want to start paying penalties when your fence-line levels persist,” he added.

Lifetime publicity to benzene at levels as low as 0.13 microgram per cubic meter may cause a danger of as much as one further cancer case for each one million exposed, according to the EPA. The upper the extent of benzene, the higher the health threat.

Marathon Petroleum’s Galveston Bay refinery in Texas City had the best common internet benzene ranges in 2021, in keeping with the analysis of the self-reported information. Roughly 37,000 folks dwell inside a three-mile radius of the refinery. Amongst them, 62% are people of coloration and 47% are low-income.

“This analysis supplies necessary perception into why the Houston space is an industrial cancer hotspot,” said Leticia Gutierrez of advocacy group Air Alliance Houston, on the press conference.

“People dwelling near these services have higher [exposure] to lifetime most cancers danger than another a part of the state, but the regulatory companies responsible for protecting us continue to approve permits for these facilities,” Gutierrez mentioned.

Environmental Integrity Undertaking notes that its evaluation didn't measure concentrations of benzene inside neighborhoods adjacent to refineries, and doesn't replicate the actual levels of benzene inside the communities.

Marathon Petroleum and the EPA didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.