Texas has more “high-risk” chemical facilities than any other state in the nation. In fact, the greater Houston area alone has 17 of the top 101 most dangerous facilities in the nation. These plants are putting millions at risk of a toxic nightmare. The U.S. Army Surgeon General estimates that an attack on just one of these facilities could kill or injure 900,000 to 2.4 million people.
Come learn about this vital issue and what you can do to help protect our community from a toxic nightmare.
The good news:
Just four poison gasses are responsible for the majority of these chemical threats. For each of these gases, safer alternatives are available today. Nationwide, more than 500 plants have switched to safer chemical processes since 1999, thereby eliminating risks for 40 million Americans.
The very highest risk facilities, however, have yet to adopt safer chemical processes. We need chemical security standards that put all high-risk facilities on an even playing field. The current law actually bars the government from requiring safer chemical processes and exempts thousands of water treatment plants and hundreds of port facilities. The chemical lobby wants to make that law permanent and that is unacceptable.
Senator Lautenberg of New Jersey recently introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate which would go would require the highest risk plants to convert to safer processes where commercially feasible. This bill is now under consideration by the Senate.
Saturday, September 11th, 2010 3pm- 4pm
Houston, Texas
Rice University--Sewall Hall Room 309. (Building is near visitor parking).
http://www.rice.edu/maps/colormap.pdf
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