Blog > Latest News > In the Belly of the Beast: Health, Justice, and Resilience in Port Arthur
The smell is what hits you first.
On a Houston-hot day in early August, driving along State Highway 73, Laalitha and I look at each other. Could we really already be smelling it? Google Maps tells us there are still 10 minutes and miles left until we arrive at our destination in Port Arthur, Texas.
“Yep, that’s hydrogen sulfide,” Laalitha says in faint disbelief. This will be the first of a long list of chemical compounds that she recognizes and recites in the coming days. The years of reading peer-reviewed literature and compiling evidence on the health impacts of fossil fuels are showing. Dr. Laalitha Surapaneni, Assistant Professor of Medicine and hospitalist at the University of Minnesota, is an expert on what we have come here to witness — the impact of fossil fuel on the people closest to it.
We are here in Texas with a group of 30 Texas-based doctors, nurses, and students who have been invited by John Beard Jr. and John Beard III of Port Arthur Community Action Network to witness how the petrochemical industry has transformed Port Arthur.
Located on the coastal border between Texas and Louisiana, Port Arthur’s history is one of a thriving Black middle class pushed out by an industry that came with promises of prosperity and wealth. Historic hometown to famous athletes, politicians, and businessmen — and none other than Janis Joplin — Port Arthur is now better known for other singularities. The city is in the 99th percentile for toxic releases into the air and 94th percentile for air toxics that have higher cancer risks.
Port Arthur is also in the 90th percentile for incidence of heart disease and in the 90th percentile for asthma. Cancer rates are high and difficult to track, with 30% of the population living uninsured and at or below the poverty line.
After driving past a few more massive developments, we arrive at the West Side Development Center, a modestly sized community building financed by Motiva, a petrochemical company with an annual revenue of $4.3 Billion. In 2012, Motiva expanded its oil refinery in Port Arthur, officially making it the largest in the United States and the fifth largest in the world. This refinery has been repeatedly been classified as a “Significant Non-Complier” by the EPA due to their volume of violations.
John Beard Jr. and John Beard III shepherd us onto our waiting tour bus, and we set off on our two-hour journey around Port Arthur. John Beard Jr. begins to tell his story. He is a retired ExxonMobil refinery worker turned Port Arthur city councilman and advocate. After 37 years at the refinery, Beard could not reconcile the impacts that the industry had on the well-being of workers, the surrounding community, and a warming world.
It feels like we have stepped onto the tour bus and into another world — mile after mile, we pass massive refineries and manufacturing plants. John Beard points out the flickering flame of a flare — a process used to burn excess gases and liquids during the oil refining process. The resulting air pollution in surrounding and downwind communities leads to an increased risk of hospitalizations, emergency room visits, worsening asthma, and even premature death. Flaring without cause or special permit is actually illegal in Texas, but nonetheless an extremely common site in Port Arthur. Beard directs our gaze across the water to Louisiana, where we see more flaring. Flaring is unregulated in Louisiana.
As we drive further into the residential area of Port Arthur, it is clear that the town has seen better days. The telltale signs of economic depression are everywhere you look, with towering refineries as the backdrop. I think about the dozens of politicians who were sworn into office vowing to protect the people of Texas, and it is hard to imagine how they justify what we are seeing all around us.
The direct health impacts of fossil fuel production on this community are just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. The 20 million-plus metric tons of greenhouse gas pollution emitted by Port Arthur is warming the planet, to catastrophic effect for all of us. Burning fossil fuels releases pollutants that lead to early death, heart attacks, respiratory disorders, stroke, asthma, and absenteeism at school and work. The impacts of fossil fuel emissions are happening first and worst in Port Arthur, but they are coming for us all.
After the tour, Port Arthur Community Action Network hosts us for a dinner where we get to talk more casually about life in Port Arthur and issues facing the entire state of Texas. Our hosts are generous with their time and treasure, which includes some extraordinary Texas BBQ. We turn in early, with the exception of a group of medical students who stay up late in the lobby studying for an upcoming exam. The heaviness of what we have seen today is lifted a little by the hope of this sight—a reminder of what participants have given up to come on this trip and what we are seeding in the next generation of physicians and nurses. What could bloom if health trainees across the country participated in this kind of experiential learning on environmental determinants of health?
The next day, we return to the Westside Development Center, where we will host a community health fair. Port Arthur residents experience a wide range of health impacts as a result of their proximity to refineries. It was important to our group that we shared our skills and resources after so many Port Arthur residents had taken the time to teach us about the history of their community and the ongoing impacts of fossil fuel development.
The health fair offered vital sign monitoring, glucose screening, cancer and mental health education, and connections to local healthcare services. We also compiled and handed out hurricane/disaster preparedness kits because, in addition to the massive industrial harms, Port Arthur also suffers from regular hurricanes and flooding
We end our day with an advocacy training. We wanted participants to leave with an understanding of their political power as trusted health voices and the many paths available to continue working in solidarity with environmental justice communities across the state of Texas. It was also important to our hosts in Port Arthur that participants left with a new critical eye for environmental health impacts in doing patient evaluation.
John Beard III encouraged our group: “Whenever you are working with people in areas surrounded by industry, go a little bit further, take an extra step, and look at the industries that are affecting these communities.” Like many of his neighbors, Beard has experienced mysterious and persistent respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms for most of his life and struggled to find care that takes seriously the potential impact of industry.
Those superpowers become even more important as we head into a presidential administration that has promised to aggressively support the expansion of the fossil fuel and petrochemical industry and to weaken already ineffective safeguards on health.
The health voice has the potential to break through the noise and misinformation on fossil fuels and climate change. What could be possible if even a tenth of the 22 million trusted healthcare workers in the United States were communicating about the health risks of fossil fuels in the way they communicate about tobacco use or foods high in saturated fats? If even a fraction of those folks were partnering with environmental justice groups and coalitions with the power to drive policy change?
Action Alert:
The Biden Administration has released its long-awaited analysis of the environmental, economic, and public health impacts of liquified natural gas (LNG) exports. The analysis makes clear that LNG exports represent a severe threat to public health and provides clear evidence for the Biden Administration to take action on LNG permits immediately. Now, it’s up to us to ensure the final analysis is utilized and empowers the Biden Administration to take decisive action to stop LNG exports.
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