Study Reveals health risks living near Refineries

New research just completed says people living near big chemical refineries in the Houston area could in fact be facing a higher risk of stress-related illnesses. At the University of Texas in Galveston, researchers have just completed work on a one-of-kind study.

They were able to compare the health of Texas City residents before and after the 2005 explosion. Before the explosion, researchers already had begun work to study the stress of living next to refineries. They’d surveyed 550 residents about their ailments and had taken samples of their blood. Then came the big explosion, so they redid everything. The new round of in-depth interviews showed people complained of far more stress-related ailments after the explosion.

And blood samples indicated that people who simply lived within about a mile of the plant had correspondingly higher levels of the chemical cortisol, which the body releases when stressed-out.