Using data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Houston’s Cite Magazine has mapped the region’s cancer risk by census tract, indicating areas closer to the Ship Channel and the city’s center have a higher cancer risk than others.
The Houston architecture and design review, published quarterly by the Rice Design Alliance, created its cancer-risk maps with 2005 National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment data. The alliance is a nonprofit organization advocating for improvement of the Houston-area’s quality of life.
Cite’s maps, posted on its website, indicate the total risk for developing any type of cancer over a lifetime. They show a large area of cancer risk around Houston’s east side near the Ship Channel that spreads west along the freeways.
Last year, newly formed group, the Healthy Port Communities Coalition, released results of its door-to-door, non-scientific health survey indicating dramatically higher asthma and cancer rates near the Ship Channel.
Of 378 people surveyed in the communities of Pasadena, Denver Harbor, Manchester and the Fifth Ward, 27 percent reported being diagnosed with asthma or other respiratory disease. The coalition also said its survey also found a significantly higher rate of cancer among port residents.