(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Fault Lines, Al Jazeera English's Emmy and Peabody-award winning documentary programme, is releasing a documentary, 'Houston's Cancer Cluster, which follows an African-American community's search for answers and accountability after their Texas neighborhood was declared a cancer cluster.
Last year, the state of Texas found unusually high rates of certain kinds of lung and throat cancers in two historically Black neighborhoods in East Houston, the Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. Many residents suspect that the nearby railyard, which is owned by the railroad-giant Union Pacific, has something to do with it.
For nearly 75 years, the railyard treated railroad ties with a toxic compound called creosote, which the US Environmental Protection Agency lists as a probable human carcinogen. The groundwater under more than 100 properties surrounding the railyard is contaminated with chemicals found in creosote. And the cancers found in the cluster are associated with exposure to creosote.
Fault Lines focuses on the stories of three women, including Schrhonda Babineux, whose husband grew up in Kashmere Gardens and is dying from esophageal cancer. When we met her, Schrhonda was spending her hours outside of work caring for her husband as he fought for his life.
Andre West grew up in the Fifth Ward. Two of her sisters died from lung cancer when they were in their 60s. Neither smoked. Andre long suspected the chemicals at the railyard made them sick and has joined local activists to force Union Pacific to answer for the pollution in the community.
Sandra Edwards leads IMPACT, a community group that is pressuring the state to conduct an epidemiological study, which could determine a cause of the cancer cluster. But nine months after the cancer cluster was discovered Texas still hasn't agreed to do one.
In an exclusive group interview, Fault Lines spoke to more than a dozen men who worked at the railyard, who described how carelessly-stored creosote flowed into the neighborhoods for decades whenever it rained.
Union Pacific declined an interview with Fault Lines. In a statement they said that residents are not exposed to the contaminated groundwater and denied connection to the cancer cluster.
The outbreak of COVID-19 in Houston has diminished organizing efforts. But the pressure may be working. The Houston health department has set aside funds for environmental testing and is studying the feasibility of an epidemiological study.
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