Climate Connections
Toxic Hazards Encircle Elementary & Middle Grade Schools in Watauga Texas
Tuan Nguyen – The use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery System (ENDS), commonly known as Vapes, has negative human health impacts, and negative environmental impacts. In the case of Watauga Texas, Vape retailer shops have encircled the city with a total of twenty (20) identified Vape shops inside or adjacent to the city borderlines of Watauga’s 4 sq. mile radius. Most concerning is the five (5) Watauga Elementary & Middle Grade Schools that co-exist with the 20 identified Vape shops. The use of ENDS discharge of heavy metals and volatile organic compounds, cause increase risks of preventable diseases. Improper disposal of ENDS releases hazardous toxic chemicals in the solid and liquid waste environment. Solid and liquid waste from ENDS residuals, flavors, and by-products have potential to leach into community’s soil, groundwater, and ultimately the drinking water system. Although current federal policies restrict legal age consumption of ENDS, current policies have failed to focus on illegal underage use of Flavored ENDS (FE), and the recreation and leisure use by legal age adults. Regulations and ordinances attempt to mitigate ENDS’ negative health and environmental effects, but the fragmented Federal, State, and Local policies regarding ENDS cause confusion and misinformation. In the case of Watauga being inundated by 20 vape shops, toxic chemical hazards from ENDS are freely contaminating the environment in Watauga TX. Prohibiting the sale of flavored ENDS in Watauga TX would thwart the emergence of preventable diseases, and environmental pollution.
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Our airs is toxic and we can fix it
Raven Stidom – The current permissible amount of ozone in the air is dangerous. All residents in Texas are susceptible to the damage that ozone air pollution can cause. Ozone is a pollutant that has serious effects on the respiratory system, such as asthma or cancer (Eaves et al. 2020). Currently, the approach to managing ozone air pollution in Texas is unacceptable because the Texas government refuses to truly regulate emissions from corporations, factories, and oil and gas wells for the sake of economic prosperity, and this will be supported by a prominent legal history from the past and present. The best recommendation for action would be a state policy that regulates the permissible amount of volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides from industrial producers throughout the state. The policy would not have to go through the extensive legal channels that a law would require. Instead, it would expand the current policy of Title 30, TAC Chapter 15, Subchapter B, Division 2 to be applicable to all industries throughout the state.
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Houston, we have a problem
Madeline Neff – This policy brief concerns the staggering amount of refinery accidents in Houston, Texas, and what can be done to keep Houstonian’s safe and healthy. Communities that are within a mile of chemical plants are referred to as fenceline communities, and studies have shown that these communities tend to be composed of low socioeconomic Latino and Black populations (Ferrell, 2024). Furthermore, Texas has more chemical disasters annually than the rest of the United States; there were “49 incidents in 2023, with the Houston-Galveston area accounting for 26 of them” (Ferrell, 2024, p. 1). The main chemicals at play here are PM2.5, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, formaldehyde, ethylene oxide, nitrogen oxides, and ground-level ozone, which are all known to be carcinogenic, as well as cause respiratory and reproductive problems as well (Zhang, 2024). Adding to the complexity of the issue, the primary language of the persons living on and near the Houston ship channel is Spanish, meaning that the English alerts and safety plans that are in place can be confusing to the people that are supposed to benefit from them (Ferrell, 2024). The language barrier also prevents these persons from advocating for themselves, and thereby depend on outside entities to conduct research and push for policy change on their behalf. Again, most of these persons fall into the lower socioeconomic category, meaning that they don’t have the time nor the means to fight for policy change, regardless of the language barrier. They also don’t have the means to pick up their lives and move to another neighborhood, especially because the more affordable neighborhoods are the ones in closest proximity to the chemical plants. Several policy ideas have been proposed to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), but the most realistic and beneficial suggestion is to have the TCEQ penalizes unplanned MSS (maintenance, startup, and shut down) events. The penalty increases with each successive unplanned MSS event, taking frequency of the events into account. Events will be analyzed by an external audit group. The rest of this brief will further detail the gravity of this situation, other policy ideas that have been proposed, and why this policy recommendation is the best suited for achieving desired health outcomes.
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