Could the neighborhood you live in be taking a mental toll on you?

New research just completed says people living near big refineries in the Houston area could in fact be facing a higher risk of stress-related illnesses.

To be among the 45,000 people who live in Texas City means living with the smells, the noise, even the death that lies just beyond 23^rd Street.

The BP refinery is one of several plants sitting where Texas City meets Galveston Bay.

In three decades, accidents just at BP have killed on average more than a worker every year. Just last month, an explosion blew off a big metal lid, smashing the life out of Joseph Gracia.

He’d worked in refineries for years.

He was there in 2005 when this explosion at BP killed 15 of his co-workers.

“He had dug people out of rubble,” lawyer Anthony Buzbee said. He represents Gracia’s family.

“There is a real problem at that plant,” he said.

A problem, a risk that may not be just for those who work inside, but what must it be like to live outside the fence line? To live year after year so close to where there have been so many deadly accidents and chemical leaks. Well now, there may be scientific proof just how stressful that can be.

“Am I going to know personally the next people that go?” Elida Matthews said.

Matthews lives in this neighborhood over a mile from the plant. She said the 2005 explosion was like the Sept. 11 attacks or the JFK assassination: “You remember what you were doing when that happens,” she said.

She talks matter-of-factly about driving when the smell of chemicals becomes overpowering.

“Turn off my air conditioner, make sure my windows are rolled up,” she said.

It has all taken its toll.

“It was pretty nerve-wracking,” she said.

At the University of Texas in Galveston, researchers have just completed work on a one-of-kind study.

They were able to compare the health of Texas City residents before and after the 2005 explosion.

Before the explosion, researchers already had begun work to study the stress of living next to refineries.

They’d surveyed 550 residents about their ailments and had taken samples of their blood.

Then came the big explosion, so they redid everything.

The new round of in-depth interviews showed people complained of far more stress-related ailments after the explosion.

And blood samples indicated that people who simply lived within about a mile of the plant had correspondingly higher levels of the chemical cortisol, which the body releases when stressed-out.

“It could have long term effects,” researcher Kristen Peek said.

And that’s why researchers say the findings are important, to let people here know they are at extra risk of stress-induced diseases simply by living here.

Which may have you asking, why do people stay?

“I enjoy what I’m doing, and my family’s here,” Matthews said. “And so that’s more important and I guess you just take your chances.”

Taking chances in a town where a threat may lie at the end of the street.

BP said it’s taking a number of steps to improve safety at its Texas City refinery and issued this response:

“We have not yet seen the survey and are not in a position to comment on its specific contents. We can say that BP is sensitive to the concerns of our neighbors and we work very hard to be a good neighbor. Since March 2005, we have invested $1 billion and 45 million man hours into refurbishing our Refinery to make both our workplace and our community a better and safer place to live and work. We regularly engage and interact with members of the community through a Citizens Advisory Council. And we’ve worked with local residents to purchase properties in closest proximity to the Refinery to create a Greenbelt, or buffer zone, between our Refinery and our neigbors. We recognize that there is a continuing need to engage with our neighbors and we remain committed to maintaining an open line of communication between the leadership of BP Texas City and the citizens of Texas City and La Marque.”