Chemical Plant Explosion Adds To Long List Of Public Health Concerns Wrought By Harvey
Toxins and chemicals from the plant and other sites are contaminating the water that's flooding Houston. Media outlets report on public health and other news from the city.
The New York Times:
New Hazard In Storm Zone: Chemical Blasts And ‘Noxious’ Smoke
A series of explosions at a flood-damaged chemical plant outside Houston on Thursday drew sharp focus on hazards to public health and safety from the city’s vast petrochemical complex as the region begins a painstaking recovery from Hurricane Harvey. (Turkewitz, Fountain and Tabuchi, 8/31)
The Wall Street Journal:
Report Shows Hazard Posed By Damaged Chemical Plant
A chemical stored at a Houston plant that caught fire early Thursday morning presents an airborne danger to more than 1 million people if released in a worst-case scenario, according to a company risk management plan filed to the federal government. (Berzon and Matthews, 8/31)
Los Angeles Times:
Harvey Pounded The Nation's Chemical Epicenter. What's In The Foul-Smelling Floodwater Left Behind?
The pounding rains of Hurricane Harvey washed over the conduits, cooling towers, ethylene crackers and other esoteric equipment of the nation’s largest complex of chemical plants and petroleum refineries, leaving behind small lakes of brown, foul-smelling water whose contents are a mystery. (Vartabedian, 8/31)
PBS NewsHour:
Destruction In Chemical Hub Houston Raise Post-Hurricane Health Concerns
Two chemical explosions at a chemical plant in Houston adds to the list of hazards brought about by Hurricane Harvey. Science producer Nsikan Akpan explains the cause of these explosions and the concerns it raises and Miles O’Brien speaks with Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, about the health implications of these chemical exposures. (Akpan and O'Brien, 8/31)
The New York Times:
Short Answers To Hard Questions About Health Threats From Hurricane Harvey
The devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston has brought a host of health questions from residents of the area and concerned relatives and friends. Here are some answers to common questions showing up in Google searches and on Facebook. (Kaplan and McNeil, 8/31)
The Associated Press:
New Orleans' Katrina Challenges May Hold Lessons For Houston
As the murky flood waters of Hurricane Katrina were slowly pumped out of New Orleans in 2005, the challenges the city faced were only beginning to come into focus. Housing, health and public safety, what and where to rebuild — all were questions faced by local, state and federal authorities who, it soon became obvious, had not been prepared to deal with the aftermath of levee failures that led to catastrophic flooding. (McGill and McConnaughey, 9/1)
The Washington Post:
Hurricane Harvey's Wrath: Texas City Loses Drinking Water, Chemicals Ignite At Plant As New Dangers Appear In Storm's Wake
The water was leaving, at last. But, across Southeast Texas on Thursday, new dangers kept appearing in Hurricane Harvey’s wake.In Crosby, northeast of Houston, loud “pops” were heard coming from a crippled chemical plant, where safety systems were flooded and authorities said an explosion could be imminent. In Beaumont, 118,000 people were without drinking water after floods disabled the city’s system. For most of them, there was no easy way out of a town that now felt like more of an island: The city was surrounded by swollen rivers and bayous, cutting off most roads. (Frankel, Hauslohner and Fahrenthold, 8/31)
NPR:
After Harvey, Houston Cancer Hospital Begins Recovery
As rains pounded Houston on Sunday, Dr. Karen Lu took to Twitter and conveyed both alarm and reassurance: "Roads around @MDAndersonNews impassable. Our on-site ride out team is caring for patients and we are all safe." Lu is a professor of gynecologic oncology and interim chief medical officer at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, a top cancer hospital and research center. Earlier that morning, the hospital had sent a high-water vehicle — a box truck — to Lu's neighborhood, and she walked eight blocks through flooded streets to meet it. (Hsu, 8/31)
Stat:
The Cancer Doctor Who Braved Harvey To Reach His Patient
Timing was everything for this cancer patient. Scientists had already harvested billions of cells in a cutting-edge lab for months. The doctors had performed a handful of rounds of chemotherapy to weaken the tumor. Now came the most crucial part: infusing those cultivated cells back into the patient. If the experimental treatment worked, Dr. Adi Diab felt the patient might have a shot at beating late-stage melanoma. (Blau, 8/31)
Stat:
In Shelter For Harvey Evacuees, Telemedicine Plans To Help Doctors Keep Up
Getting thousands of Houston-area families to shelters has been a massive humanitarian effort. But the aid doesn’t end there: Many of the displaced have chronic medical conditions like asthma or injuries from recent days that need medical attention. Providers of telemedicine are hoping technology can help step into the breach. At Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, which has begun to take residents displaced by flooding in Houston, emergency-room doctors at Children’s Health, a pediatric hospital based in Dallas, are seeing young patients remotely. (Samuel, 8/31)
Kaiser Health News:
Podcast: ‘What The Health?’ Hurricane Harvey And Health Costs
Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Joanne Kenen of Politico, and Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times discuss the potential health impact of Hurricane Harvey on the Texas Gulf Coast, and what impact the relief effort in Washington could have on an already jampacked September agenda. Also this week: an interview with Elisabeth Rosenthal about why medical care costs so much. (8/31)
