Demand for Cleaner Air When Living Close to Refineries

You will find that in places like Port Arthur, US which is the home of one of the top ten largest oil refineries and also eight chemical and oil industrial sites, you smell the putrid smell every day coming from the area. It is this terrible smell that cause you to always keep in mind that if you live in that area or close to any other refinery, that you could get sick.

In Port Arthur for example you will find the cancer rate among the African American community is more than fifteen percent higher than anywhere else or compared to other Americans not living in close proximity to a refinery. Mortality rates in Jefferson County where the refinery is located is also forty percent higher.

Looking at the Valero refinery in Houston, Texas you will notice the statistics in lymphocytic leukemia are startlingly high as it stands at 56 percent higher than anywhere else and that is for children. These two communities are not the only ones affected though as the issue continues and the worst of it is that you will find that the majority of people living in communities closerto refineries are low-income, African Americans and Latinos too, thus endangering themselves and facing a daily risk of contracting cancer much likelier than any other group living elsewhere. These disadvantages some face due to income or race should not be true or even happen as everybody has a right to healthy, clean breathable fresh air.