House beside petrol station - health concerns?

fixxation

We've been looking to moving home, since January this year. Finally one has come on the market, that we absolutely love - far more than anything we have seen so far this year, however, it has a petrol station directly beside it.

The pumps are about 50 metres from the back garden of the house, and there are a couple car washes. We can take a bit of noise from the car wash, we have four kids ourselves and they are noisy enough as it is... but the concern is the fumes from the petrol/diesel - from the pumps themselves and also when the ground containers are filled once a week.

Anyone know if there are an *significant* health risks living next to a petrol station, especially for children playing in a back garden beside one?

I've read a few articles online that talk about the fumes being risky and 4X higher risk of childhood leukemia... but 50 metres away, surely it will have largely dispersed in the wind?

Thanks

Phileas Frog

fixxation wrote: »

I've read a few articles online that talk about the fumes being risky and 4X higher risk of childhood leukemia...

Were these articles from scientific journals or the likes of Jim Corr & Gemma O'Doherty?

L1011

Just had to measure how far the petrol station "down the road" is from me. 360m from the pumps.

There are houses meters from the pump. I actually know the owner of the house 5m away; who recently enough inherited it off her great aunt who lived to a huge age - petrol station site is at least 50 years old although they're on their fourth shop building in my lifetime.

There should be no real fumes from the filling of the tanks. Go check how well (or not) they handle spills to see what kind of evaporation you'll get there - some stations put huge amounts of trust in the hydrocarbon interceptors on their surface water drainage. However, there still won't be very much from that.

banie01

Benzenes and ring compounds do increase the risk of aplastic anemia and leukemia in children.

However they need to be ingested at a dose or over a period that would alert the EPA or local authorities to any issue.
There is IMO a very negligible increase in the risk of contracting those disease versus living in a field.

If Petrol Stations seriously contributed to a manifest risk, in Ireland they would be legislated and sued out of existence IMO.

fixxation

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate it.

davindub

fixxation wrote: »

Thanks for the replies guys, appreciate it.

You could engage an environmental engineer to check the grounds of the house. There is a risk of contamination of ground water from leaking tanks in petrol stations, so contaminates can spread quite far in some cases.


You may also be able to check with the council for the certificate of testing for vapor recovery, the Petroleum Vapour Emissions Regulations 1997 requires petrol stations of a certain volume of sales to carry this out.

mfceiling

My uncle owned a petrol station for 30 years and his house was next door. He's well into his 70's now and still plays table tennis for his local club. His wife is a keen gardener and walks a lot. Both of them in very good health for their age.

Supercell

Long term it will likely be a charging station/restaurant. I can see mass petrol station closures as electric goes mainstream with a few bigger places surviving initially and some others being converted to charging stations/restaurants. Probably happening sooner than most think too, something to think about.

whiskeyman

I would have thought noise pollution is the biggest issue, especially from the pumps, car washes.
What time does it close at night?
Local shops / petrol stations often attract local kids hanging around also. Would they be hanging outside your wall?
These would prob be the things I'd be more concerned about and that may affect the resale potential if I wanted to move in the future.

stiofan85

Lived 50m from a petrol station years ago. I'm asthmatic and noticed a significant increase in symptoms while I lived there. When we were moving out and I de-iced the fridge freezer there was noticeable soot in the melt water.

Ray Palmer

I find some of what has been here very strange. I can smell the petrol station near me a fair distance away. Like 50 to 60 houses away. If you are beside it there is no way you won't be smelling fumes in your garden and I suspect in the house.
If the station isn't 24 hours it will likely be so at some point in the future. Personally I would avoid it.

SozBbz

I mean, its not ideal and I probably wouldnt buy it but there are plenty of houses beside petrol stations up and down the country. Surely if it was a real public health concern it would have been raised by now. That said, I'd expect it to be priced into the asking price as its probably an eyesore and the noise factors are considerable.

That said, if you plan to own it for a long time, petrol stations will probably cease to exist over time as ICE engines become a thing of the past.