美国国家公共电台 NPR After Chemical Fires, Texans Worry About Toxic Effects

 

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

We're going to revisit a community hit hard by Hurricane Harvey. Crosby, Texas, is home to a chemical plant owned by the company Arkema. After that plant lost power in the storm, trailers of unstable¹ chemicals caught fire and burned for days. Some people who live in the community say they were hurt by those fires. And as NPR's Rebecca Hersher reports, they're suing.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE²: Shannan Wheeler lives on the outskirts³ of Crosby. He likes to sit out front in the evenings. It's where we talked as the sun went down and the mosquitoes came out.

SHANNAN WHEELER: Usually in the evenings around here, we have a ground fog that comes in. It's really kind of pretty sometimes.

HERSHER: The house is 3 miles from the Arkema plant, about a 30-minute drive from the Houston suburb where Wheeler grew up.

WHEELER: I was born and raised in Baytown, so I grew up around five of the biggest petrochemical facilities on the planet. And with my family's history, I'm familiar with every one of them.

HERSHER: An uncle who worked at Chevron⁴ - his mom runs the local chamber⁵ of commerce. And Wheeler designs pipe systems for petrochemical plants. When the Arkema fire started burning, the evening fog smelled like something he'd only ever encountered at work when equipment leaked.

WHEELER: The first smell that I got smelled like battery acid. Something's wrong here.

HERSHER: The air hurt his throat. He noticed dew was leaving strange black residue⁶ in his flowerbeds. And then things got worse. A couple days later, he was at home when he heard a distant boom. The windows shook a little.

WHEELER: Directly over those trees right there to the east - thick, black column going up, and it was going pretty good.

HERSHER: Wheeler called Harris County 911 looking for information. The dispatcher told him all we know is the chemicals are burning on purpose. Arkema had deliberately⁷ ignited the remaining chemicals at the plant. Over the next few days, the putrid⁸ smell around his house mostly went away.

WHEELER: The following Saturday, I decided⁹ to go ahead and mow¹⁰ the yard because it was a week overdue¹¹ anyway.

HERSHER: When he was done, he scooped¹² up the clippings with his hands.

WHEELER: I was wearing gloves, but I noticed back behind the gauntlet of the glove up on my wrist and everything, it was starting to stain a little bit. And I looked, and I started noticing redness. And it was a slight swelling¹³, but I noticed welts coming down along my wrists, down my thumbs, you know, on both of them - on both hands.

HERSHER: He rubbed baking soda¹⁴ on the welts. The next day, his local doctor diagnosed it as chemical dermatitis.

WHEELER: And sure enough, he said that's a chemical burn. And that's bad when you can't even cut your grass.

HERSHER: Wheeler blames the ash from the fire, but that doesn't square with the official version of what happened. Wheeler's house is way outside the evacuation zone for the plant. As the fires were burning, officials were saying it was safe there, like at this press conference by Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez and the assistant fire marshal, Bob Royall.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

ED GONZALEZ: Arkema company officials and the Harris County Fire Marshal's Office have told us that exposure to smoke from these organic peroxides is similar to standing¹⁵ over a burning campfire.

BOB ROYALL: What does it mean for people's health? You don't want to stand in smoke, do you?

HERSHER: A spokesperson for Arkema wrote in an email to NPR, quote, "we reject any suggestion that Arkema failed to warn of the danger of breathing smoke from the fires at the Crosby plant." The EPA, Harris County district attorney and U.S. Chemical Safety Board are all investigating. Analyzing¹⁶ contaminants from big fires is hard under the best circumstances. It's extra difficult when they happened in the middle of a huge storm. But multiple organic chemist told me the chemicals that burned - they're called organic peroxides - are probably not the problem.

MICHELLE FRANCL: The peroxides turn out to be the easiest part of this whole thing.

HERSHER: Michelle Francl is an organic chemist and professor at Bryn Mawr College.

FRANCL: Peroxides, when they burn at the temperatures that they would burn in this kind of fire, turn into carbon dioxide and water.

HERSHER: But the containers for the chemicals and the refrigerated trailers where they were being stored - they burned, too.

FRANCL: Everything from the labels on things to whatever plastic or metal that the containers were made out of - all that stuff is going to turn into ash, and then it's going to absorb other chemicals that didn't burn entirely¹⁷. So the ash is nasty.

HERSHER: Chemists warn that figuring out exactly what chemicals are in the ash can be really hard. But after the fires, local people got together to file a lawsuit¹⁸ alleging¹⁹ that the ash and smoke caused the rashes and respiratory problems suffered by Wheeler and others. Wheeler joined the lawsuit against Arkema even though he wants the company to stay in Crosby.

WHEELER: Running business and jobs and money out of town is completely foreign concept to me. So no, I don't want to get rid of Arkema.

HERSHER: But he does think that they owe the town something.

WHEELER: We want them to be accountable. That's what you do. You have a responsibility to the community.

HERSHER: He wants to force the company to plan and communicate better because, he says, this is the Gulf²⁰. There will be another storm. Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

1 unstable   

adj.不稳定的，易变的

参考例句：

• This bookcase is too unstable to hold so many books.这书橱很不结实，装不了这么多书。
• The patient's condition was unstable.那患者的病情不稳定。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 outskirts   

n.郊外，郊区

参考例句：

• Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
• They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。

4 chevron   

n.V形臂章；V形图案

参考例句：

• He wore shoulderstrap rank slides with sergeant's chevrons.他佩戴标示级别的肩章，上面有中士的V形标志。
• The chevron or arrow road sign indicates a sharp bend to the left or right.V形或箭头路标表示有向左或向右的急转弯。

5 chamber   

n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所

参考例句：

• For many,the dentist's surgery remains a torture chamber.对许多人来说，牙医的治疗室一直是间受刑室。
• The chamber was ablaze with light.会议厅里灯火辉煌。

6 residue   

n.残余，剩余，残渣

参考例句：

• Mary scraped the residue of food from the plates before putting them under water.玛丽在把盘子放入水之前先刮去上面的食物残渣。
• Pesticide persistence beyond the critical period for control leads to residue problems.农药一旦超过控制的临界期，就会导致残留问题。

7 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

8 putrid   

adj.腐臭的；有毒的；已腐烂的；卑劣的

参考例句：

• To eat putrid food is liable to get sick.吃了腐败的食物容易生病。
• A putrid smell drove us from the room.一股腐臭的气味迫使我们离开这房间。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 mow   

v.割（草、麦等），扫射，皱眉；n.草堆，谷物堆

参考例句：

• He hired a man to mow the lawn.他雇人割草。
• We shall have to mow down the tall grass in the big field.我们得把大田里的高草割掉。

11 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

12 scooped   

v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 )；（敏捷地）抱起；抢先获得；用铲[勺]等挖（洞等）

参考例句：

• They scooped the other newspapers by revealing the matter. 他们抢先报道了这件事。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 swelling   

n.肿胀

参考例句：

• Use ice to reduce the swelling. 用冰敷消肿。
• There is a marked swelling of the lymph nodes. 淋巴结处有明显的肿块。

14 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。

15 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

16 analyzing   

v.分析；分析( analyze的现在分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析n.分析

参考例句：

• Analyzing the date of some socialist countries presents even greater problem s. 分析某些社会主义国家的统计数据，暴露出的问题甚至更大。 来自辞典例句
• He undoubtedly was not far off the mark in analyzing its predictions. 当然，他对其预测所作的分析倒也八九不离十。 来自辞典例句

17 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

18 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

19 alleging   

断言，宣称，辩解( allege的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• His reputation was blemished by a newspaper article alleging he'd evaded his taxes. 由于报上一篇文章声称他曾逃税，他的名誉受到损害。
• This our Peeress declined as unnecessary, alleging that her cousin Thornhill's recommendation would be sufficient. 那位贵人不肯，还说不必，只要有她老表唐希尔保荐就够了。

20 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。