Researchers from the University of Louisville updated far western Kentucky residents on Thursday about where a project studying potential community exposures to hazardous substances emitted from some of Calvert City’s chemical plants stands a year after some of the initial data collections began.
The BEACON Health Research Study from UofL’s Envirome Institute and Center for Integrative Environmental Health Sciences is designed to measure potential levels of exposure to volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) in the area surrounding the Calvert City Industrial Park, which is home to several chemical manufacturing plants. The study is primarily focused on those living in Marshall, Livingston and McCracken counties.
Results from a years-long air quality study published by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2024 found elevated levels of VOCs around the industrial complex. One of the chemicals with elevated levels the agency flagged in its findings was ethylene dichloride – a compound the EPA classifies as a “probable human carcinogen” that can also impact the nervous system if a high concentration of it is inhaled.
While the EPA previously found evidence of elevated levels of potentially hazardous chemicals in the air in parts of Calvert City, BEACON study co-principal investigator Ted Smith said the UofL project seeks to find whether there is evidence of nearby residents and animals being exposed to those VOCs.
“Are they breathing chemicals that are known to be dangerous? Establishing that is one step on the way to understanding whether there can be a relationship to health,” Smith said.
During Thursday’s meeting, Smith said the presence of potentially hazardous chemicals in the air does not by itself prove that people have breathed them in – or that those chemicals are the cause of diseases or health conditions a person may have developed. If data from the BEACON study shows evidence of people breathing in some of those chemicals, Smith said that would provide a more full picture of the impacts the air pollution may be having on the surrounding area.
As part of the project, UofL researchers are testing wastewater samples from a treatment facility in Grand Rivers to measure the levels of metabolites – substances the body makes in the process of breaking down food or chemicals – associated with several VOCs. That wastewater data will then be compared with data from the Kentucky Division for Air Quality’s monitoring sites in Calvert City to see which pollutants surrounding community members have been exposed to.
While the research team sought permission to test Calvert City’s wastewater, Smith said the local government “specifically declined to offer the wastewater to us.” However, following feedback from some of the attendees, Smith said the research team will ask for permission to test Calvert City’s wastewater again in January after a new mayor and some new city council members are sworn in. The incumbent mayor, Gene Colburn, is not seeking reelection.
Researchers are also working with some residents who live within 10 miles of the Calvert City Industrial Park to test potential pollutant exposure on an individual level by examining blood and urine samples and surveying the participants’ health over the course of a year. This past summer, UofL researchers also collected blood samples from birds around Calvert City to study potential health impacts to animals in the area that could potentially be connected to the regional air pollution.
While the BEACON study seeks to find levels of community exposure to different pollutants known to be in the air around Calvert City, Smith cautions that the research from the UofL team will not be able to answer what potential health conditions those substances could be driving.
However, when the project’s final results are finally shared with community members next year, Smith said residents could use those findings to further conversations about setting local emissions standards and limits for plants in Calvert City to further the overall safety and wellbeing of the community. He pointed to an example in Louisville where, following studies from UofL into air pollution stemming from tire and synthetic rubber plants, the city adopted regulations in 2005 to reduce levels of various air toxins. State law allows county governments – and some cities – in Kentucky to form air pollution control districts and enforce their own air quality regulations on top of existing state and federal ones, but only Louisville has such a body.
“We would be very delighted if somebody said, ‘Gosh, I'd like to explore how we might use community set guidelines for these things,’” Smith said. “Everybody has the tools. They're free to use. It just requires … the citizenry [and] political will to get together and say ‘we can do something with this information.’”
The BEACON research team plans to hold another community meeting in March 2027. Presenters said they plan to have more data and laboratory analysis to present at this next meeting. Researchers anticipate publishing and reporting their final results in summer 2027.
More information about the study and contact information for residents interested in volunteering to participate can be found on the UofL project’s website.
