New Texas study finds high cancer rates along San Jacinto River

HOUSTON – The Houston Chronicle reports Texas officials announced four unusual patterns of cancer covering a large swath of East Harris County in a new state assessment published this month. The study, led by the Department of State Health Services, looked at data on 25 cancer types from 2013 to 2021 and found significantly higher-than-expected rates of several diseases in the 65-census-tract area. The investigation was triggered by residents concerned that the floodplain around the San Jacinto River — which includes a Superfund site where toxic waste remains lodged in the waterway — was making them sick. “Based on cancer rates in Texas, the observed number of all-age cervix uteri, leukemia, lung and bronchus, and lymphoma cancers was statistically significantly greater than expected,” DSHS researchers said in the report.

“Other all-age and childhood cancer types were either statistically lower or within the range of what is expected,” the report read. Even as area residents remembered cancer losses and reflected on the study at the San Jacinto Community Center Monday afternoon, they said many warnings go unheeded near the river. Less than three miles away from the location of the news conference, two men could be seen pulling a metal boat from the off-limits portion of the river that sits over buried toxic waste. Despite warning signs, people sometimes go fishing there. State researchers made clear that their assessment only evaluated the rate of each of the types of cancer, not their potential causes. The study followed a related 2015 analysis by the department, which used older data and identified greater-than-expected incidences of several cancers, including apparent clusters of eye and brain cancers in children. This time, prompted by the Texas Health and Environment Alliance, the agency considered a longer list of diseases. It was another methodological change, however, that left the organization’s founder Jackie Medcalf frustrated: While the 2015 assessment drilled down to the census-tract level, state leaders opted this time to provide only a high-level summary for the area, which stretches for 250 square miles. Census tracts are neighborhood-sized areas often used by the government to collect and analyze demographics and trends.