The Houston Ship Channel is one of the nation's most active economic engines. According to Port Houston, the 52-mile dredged waterway that leads from Galveston Bay to just east of Downtown Houston hauls more than $900 billion in economic value to the nation's economy.
But for those who live near the clump of more than 600 facilities that operate along, while it may be the source of their livelihoods, it's significantly shortening their lives. According to a 2024 report from Amnesty International, people in Ship Channel neighborhoods are frequently exposed to known carcinogens and can have life expectancies up to 20 years shorter than those who live in more affluent areas about 15 miles to the west.
That's why the organization has designated the Houston Ship Channel a Sacrifice Zone, which is a geographic area in which the health and safety of people who live and work there are sacrificed for the economic benefit of others.
But the families who live along the Ship Channel do have champions, and one of them is a scientist named Peter Infante.
Dr. Infante spent much of his government career uncovering the dangers of a chemical called benzene and other poisons that people routinely breathe in Ship Channel neighborhoods like Channelview. It all began in 1977, when he published a study that confirmed beyond any reasonable doubt that benzene caused leukemia in exposed workers. This conclusion made him unpopular with industrial polluters and, on more than one occasion, put his career at risk.
Infante refused to be intimidated.
Jim Morris is the founder and executive director at Public Health Watch, and he's known Infante and followed his work since the 1990s. In this episode of Petrie Dish, we're sharing Morris's profile of Dr. Infante, The Scientist Who Refused To Be Intimidated.
It's part of Public Health Watch's investigative podcast called FUMED, which unpacks the stories of people who live in the shadows of America’s chemical plants and oil refineries.
