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Q&A: Cancer Alley Is Real, And Louisiana Officials Helped Create It, Researchers Find

Summary

For years, environmental organizations have nicknamed the 130-mile industrial corridor along the lower Mississippi River between here and Baton Rouge "cancer alley," a twisting stretch with more than 200 companies, including oil refineries, plastics manufacturers, chemical plants, and other polluting enterprises. State environmental authorities and business representatives have long challenged the phrase, even though U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mapping indicates the region's population suffer some of the nation's greatest health risks from inhaling harmful chemicals. Public authorities have maintained that the state's cancer registry reveals cancer incidences in industrial corridor parishes do not surpass statewide rates. But two studies published in peer-reviewed publications in the past 13 months support the idea that cancer alley is real and that state environmental officials have helped create it with inequitable air quality laws. A January 2022 Environmental Research Letters study indicated air pollution increased cancer rates in Black and disadvantaged populations. Last month, a second study in Environmental Challenges found  that industrial emissions in Louisiana's minority communities are seven to 21 times higher than in white ones, blaming state regulators' permitting methods. The investigations come amid continuing environmental justice fights against new or expanded petrochemical facilities, notably the $9.4 billion Formosa plastics manufacturing complex planned for St. James Parish, which has been stalled by the courts, and the EPA's vow to better monitor pollution in t

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