The increased cancer risk that comes from living next door to the Point Richmond Chevron refinery for a long period is “significant and narrow,” said the Bay Area Air District’s health director at a community forum Monday evening.
“It’s significant because it means that science and government are working, although we’ll be the first to admit not as fast as we’d like,” said Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, a former Contra Costa Health deputy officer and a board-certified family physician who practiced in the Richmond-San Pablo area. “It’s narrow because this doesn’t look at the average risk out to a community resident, it uses those state-standard methodologies that look at a maximally exposed individual — an imaginary person who is breathing the air for 30 years — not a family member, a mom or sister who has their own cancer risk.”
Gathered around two dozen round tables inside Richmond’s Memorial Auditorium, community members, city council members and employees of the air district, city and Chevron learned more about the district’s first Chevron Richmond health assessment under Rule 11.18 that directly links increased health risks to oil refining emissions.
read more about health risk report
The preliminary report, which says that the risk is 3.5 times higher than the level requiring the refinery to take corrective action, validates what generations of Richmond residents have anecdotally reported feeling in their bodies and what activists have been shouting for decades: The city’s history as a refinery town has impacted residents’ health, including leading to increased asthma cases, and may be shortening their lifespans.
Ariana Husain, an engineering manager with the air district, began the 90-minute meeting by saying the assessment focused on stationary sources at the refinery but did not consider all the additional pollution sources nearby.
How to comment on air district’s Chevron health risk report
To submit a comment on the Bay Air District’s Chevron health assessment, visit their website and scroll down to the Phase/Facilities list. There’s a comment link under Chevron Products Company.
The comment period closes Nov. 23, 2026.
Previous research conducted on behalf of the district identified the 94801 zip code — which includes Chevron and Point Richmond — as the area most impacted by air pollution, with the other being 94804, which when combined encompass most of the city.
Other pollution sources in those neighborhoods include diesel-burning locomotives on rail lines, trucks and cars on Interstate 580, the wastewater management facility and other auxiliary industrial sources such as Chemtrade.
Husain said the initial report was a draft and that the assessment of risks could change following the public comment period and any new data presented to the air district. If the risks remain above what the state mandates as safe, Chevron will have to draft a remediation plan and implement it within roughly five years.
Cancer risk said to equal one’s average risk of dying in a motor vehicle crash in a given year
Most of the questions submitted to air district personnel were anonymous, so it was unknown whether they came from local residents. Chevron, which previously said that it had “significant issues” with the assessment and believes it “materially overstates” the risk, did not have an employee publicly identify themselves during the meeting.
The air district primarily focused on demystifying a key finding: Preliminary results showed the cancer risk for people living closest to the refinery was “37 in a million,” or 3.5 times the level that requires the refinery to take corrective action under air district rules.
Richmond City Council member Sue Wilson, whose district spans Richmond’s southern coast from the Point Richmond marine terminals to the Richmond Annex, requested further explanation, asking: Is it 370% percent above the level where regulators require action? Does it mean residents in the area are 3.5 times more likely to get cancer?
“The way I explain it is: When it comes to risk, we want to be as safe as possible. So when the risk is 1 in a million, we call it ‘significant,’ and we look at it more closely. We draw the line at 10 (in a million), lower than other regions in the state, because we want to be safe,” Radhakrishna said. “What we found is that it’s three-and-a-half times higher than that limit. So let’s get it down as low as possible, definitely below 10.”
Radhakrishna, who was named the air district’s health officer in July, cited a figure from the Institute of Highway Safety that shows that the risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident for the average person driving for a year is also 37 in a million.
Kevin Ruano, who grew up in the Iron Triangle, said that he felt the air district failed to grasp things that are core to Richmond, including its high percentage of people of color and people with underlying medical conditions such as asthma. He asked if those were taken into consideration, as well as any schools in the areas of concern.
Radhakrishna responded by saying those factors are why the air district has implemented the most protective health measures in the state.
“We know communities are overburdened, and when you are working in an already overburdened community, reducing every possible burden matters,” he said. “We did specifically look at schools, and we did specifically look at students, who are at higher risk, as well as younger people. Children, for example, are still developing. They breathe faster. They spend more time outdoors, and there may be a higher community burden of respiratory conditions.”
Local activist Tarnel Abbott, who lives in the Panhandle Annex neighborhood, said she’s heard that the Chevron Richmond refinery is considered to be the worst polluter in the state but asked for clarity because the cancer risk map the air district displayed appeared to be locally focused.
Husain said the study looked at exposure to benzo[a]pyrene and other toxic contaminants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the surrounding community while pollutants like nitrogen oxides and carbon monoxide are “more far-reaching pollutants.”
The air district says the primary sources of cancer-causing chemicals are leaks, storage tanks and generators, which account for 74% of the total estimated cancer risk. Along with that is acute risk — something someone could be exposed to in an hour — such as from benzene from a bioreactor, part of the refiner’s wastewater treatment system, levels of which were found to be highest in a parking lot near the refinery, Husain said.
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“To really make it personal, you’ve got to talk to your doctor to layer that on top of other risks that a particular person may have.”
— Dr. Rohan Radhakrishna, Bay Area Air District health officer
Throughout the presentation, air district staff didn’t identify the neighborhood (Point Richmond) or the nearby school (Washington Elementary) by name, only referring to “a school” and the area “south of the refinery” as having the highest cancer risk, until a Richmondside reporter pointed it out.
“People in Richmond identify by neighborhood. They don’t always identify south of the refinery, west of the refinery, east of the refinery. We have to put things in real terms,” said county supervisor John Gioia, who lives in Richmond, sits on the air district board and whose son attended Washington. “Just to be clear, the area south of the refinery that you’re referring to is Point Richmond. And the school, which is in Point Richmond, is Washington Elementary.”
Throughout the presentation, Radhakrishna emphasized the “significant and narrow” analogy about the assessment.
This is significant, he said, because if Chevron doesn’t ultimately reduce its emissions levels during the public comment period, which ends Nov. 23 at 5 p.m., it will have to come up with a plan to reduce the emissions that increase the cancer risks. By lowering the risk of acute conditions and cancer, Radhakrishna said, it could collectively also reduce the amount of arsenic, nickel, chromium, potentially diesel particulate matter and other things, leading to overall improved community health.
But, Radhakrishna said, to really understand what the “37 in a million” figure means, one must consider their overall risk factors. The air district, as a public health entity, is tasked with lowering known risks to everyone.
“To really make it personal, you’ve got to talk to your doctor to layer that on top of other risks that a particular person may have,” he said. “But using the health and safety approach, whenever you have a risk that can be reduced, lower it because we want the lowest cancer risk possible.”
This story was updated to correct a caption on the refinery map and the city of residence of one of the meeting attendees.
