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  The Statesman October 21, 2005 Bogart: Why this Texas town might not want to breathe easy Paul Bogart, HEALTHY BUILDING NETWORK Oct. 6 was, apparently, a good air day in Point Comfort, a coastal Texas town south of Houston. In the wake of a massive explosion that ripped through the Formosa Plastics plant and injured at least eight people, Calhoun County Commissioner Michael Balajka quickly informed residents that "it appeared that no toxic materials had been released into the air." Residents were likely further relieved to hear from local authorities that "preliminary tests of the air quality hours after the explosion detected no toxic fumes." All of this upbeat information about air quality around the PVC plant in Point Comfort was somewhat surprising in light of news footage showing billowing black clouds of smoke, which enveloped the area and forced the precautionary evacuation of the nearby school. Not to mention the fact that during routine operations, things don't run so clean at the Formosa plant. During 2002 alone, the most recent year for which figures are available, the facility emitted more than three quarters of a million pounds of air pollution. In addition to the usual respiratory irritants, that number includes about 120,000 pounds of known and suspected carcinogens and developmental toxins. While Formosa's stock might suffer a bit from this most recent serious accident (their second in 17 months), pollution output has never been better: dioxin compound releases in 2002 were up from previous years, and total releases increased by more than 2,000 percent in the 14-year period between 1988 and 2002. Not that Formosa's environmental record in Point Comfort hasn't been recognized. Last April, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality fined the facility $150,000 for violations of air pollution laws that included releases of toxic chemicals such as vinyl chloride. Doling out spoonfuls of reassuring information that's easy to swallow even as the acrid smoke still burns is nothing new in the growing field of post-disaster spin. From the 9/11 terror attacks to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, residents have been given information that is incomplete, inaccurate and downright irresponsible regarding the health risks in their communities. Formosa itself had recent experience in this when another of its PVC facilities blew up last year in Illiopolis, Ill., killing five workers and sending a plume of smoke wafting miles across the Illinois countryside. Even as the plant was still smoking, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported local officials' assurances that "the town's residents should return to 'business as usual.' They offered assurances that repeated tests had found the air and water to be safe and free of dangerous chemicals produced when the materials at the factory burned." Of course, Formosa officials also had publicly assured concerned residents that the plant workers would be paid and receive benefits while the plant was rebuilt, but that turned out to be just smoke, too. One month later, Formosa laid-off half its workers while the others had their employment extended until they finished helping to clean up after the accident. So breathe easy, Point Comfort residents. It's all good. Bogart is national campaigns coordinator for the Healthy Building Network, an environmental advocacy group. |
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