Tom DeLay's Pollution Plan

Is this the picture Tom DeLay has in mind for Houston?

(Photographs courtesy of Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention - Contact Ron Parry at 713-669-1195 or 713-527-8101 Ext. 2446 for more information about GHASP.)

Did you know that. . .

Houston has had more days with dangerously high levels of ground-level ozone than any other city in the United States. (1) Houston Moves Ahead of L.A. as Smog Leader (2) Smog City - Houston Gains Unwanted New Title (3) More Kids in City Found to be at Risk from Smog -- Houston Chronicle Articles dated October & November 1999

The League of Conservation Voters gave Tom DeLay a lifetime score (average score for all years in office) of only 8%. In other words, Tom DeLay votes against the environment 92% of the time, on average.

Tom DeLay introduced a bill in Congress, H.R. 480, "To amend the Clean Air Act to repeal the mandatory requirement for State motor vehicle inspection and maintenance programs for ozone nonattainment areas."

The Air We Breath

In 2002 Texas violated federal smog standards 52 times. At least half of these violations occurred in Houston, the third-smoggiest city in the United States. In previous years, Houston has had the worst air pollution in the nation but unseasonably rainy and windy weather in 2002 helped the city to give the pollution title back to Los Angeles. Nationwide, the smog standard was exceeded 700 times in 2002. This number is a significant jump from previous years; 532 violations in 2001 and 516 in 2002. (Houston Chronicle, March 19, 2003)

An October 2, 2003 Article in the Beaumont Enterprise reported that air quality in southeast Texas was in the ‘severe’ category of quality violations, defined by the EPA as being hazardous to everyone. Local experts and the EPA agree that air pollution violations in the region are caused by smog blowing in from Houston.

According to a study paid for by the City of Houston, the Houston area could benefit as much as 2.9 to 3.1 billion dollars each year if the federal health standards for air pollution were achieved by the year 2007. (Mothers for Clean Air - Summer 1999 publication) And according to a new Environmental Protection Agency study called by many as "the most extensive evaluation ever completed of the Clean Air Act", restrictions on auto and smokestack emissions brought the US a net dividend of 6.4 trillion in reduced death and disease from 1970 to 1990.

Children at Risk

According to the National Association of Physicians for the Environment, children are at special risk from air pollution. Children's airways are narrower than adults; they have increased need for oxygen relative to their size; they breathe more rapidly and inhale more pollutants per pound of body weight; their higher metabolic rates affects the absorption of toxins; and they breath closer to the ground where dust, dirt, and toxic heavy metals such as lead are deposited. Researchers in Utah also discovered that increases in air pollution resulted in a 40 percent increase in overall absences from school by children.

According to the Galveston-Houston Association for Smog Prevention (GHASP), "Children are at Greatest Risk from Air Pollution...Children who breathe polluted air experience more middle ear and respiratory infections, colds, headaches and allergies than those who live in less polluted environments. They are more likely to be diagnosed with or die from asthma or cancer (especially brain cancer, sarcomas, leukemia or lymphomas). Deaths from asthma increased 31% in the U.S. between 1980 and 1987, with the largest increase in urban children between the ages of 5 and 15. Childhood cancer increased 10.8 percent between 1973 and 1990 and is a leading cause of death in children, second only to accidents."

Toxics and Chemical Agents

According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s annual Toxic Release Inventory (TRI), Texas released over 270 million pounds of toxic, cancer-causing pollutants into the environment in 2001. Texas ranks third in the nation for total amounts of toxic chemicals released in the air and discharges more toxic chemical waste onto surface water and into wells than any other state or province in the union.

Our Health

A recent study by the American Lung Association and the Harvard School of Public Health reported that emergency room visits and hospitalizations for respiratory problems doubled on days with high ozone levels. And a 1996 analysis by the Natural Resources Defense Council estimated that over 60,000 Americans die prematurely each year from disease attributable to air pollution.

According to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled An Association Between Air Pollution and Mortality in Six US Cities, researchers studied more than 8,000 people in six U.S. cities over a period of 15 years. The people lived in areas with different levels of air pollution. The risk of early death in high pollution areas was 26 percent higher than in areas with the lowest levels of pollution. GHASP also writes that, "In 1990 alone, emissions controls saved roughly 45,000 to 140,000 lives nationwide and resulted in an estimated 15 million fewer respiratory illnesses. As a result, during that year Americans received an estimated $20 of value in reduced risks for every $1 spent to control air pollution."

Texas Water Pollution

Texas ranks first in the country for the surface water discharge of toxic chemicals, dumping over 26 million pounds of toxic chemicals into surface waters annually, and disposes 78 thousand pounds of toxic waste in its underground injection wells; more than any other state. (2001 Toxic Release Inventory Reports) Fifty-two segments of Texas's bays, rivers, lakes and streams have known problems with specific toxic pollutants or ambient toxicity, affecting 867 miles of rivers and streams. (1994 Water Quality Inventory and data drawn from the state's limited monitoring of toxins) In addition, Texas no longer meets the minimum standard of the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. (Environmental Defense Fund)