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21st October 2017, 17:36
https://www.ksat.com/health/toxic-tensions-in-the-heart-of-cancer-alley?source=facebook&medium=snd&campaign=ksat12
LAPLACE, Louisiana (CNN) - Geraldine Watkins sits at the kitchen table in her ranch home, rattling off the names of friends and relatives in her small Louisiana town who've died of cancer over the last 40 years.
Her grandchildren suffer an array of ailments, from skin conditions to breathing problems. Her 7-year-old great-grandson's breathing is so labored, she says, "you can feel his heart trying to jump out of his chest."
Watkins lives in the shadow of a plant that spews chloroprene -- a chemical so toxic the Environmental Protection Agency says nearby residents face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from air toxins.
"You gotta live here to try to breathe the air, drink the water, see the children so sick and watch people die," Watkins says. "Industry is wonderful to have, but if it's killing the people in the area that they live in, what good is industry?"
Watkins is a worthy advocate, a 76-year-old great-grandmother challenging those in power. Her words are often punctuated by folksy aphorisms: "Nothing beats a failure but a try," she says.
And try she will.
The town of LaPlace, Louisiana, lies along the Mississippi River, a stone's throw from Lake Pontchartrain and the Maurepas Swamp. It sits in the heart of an area that's become known by locals as "Cancer Alley," a vast industrial stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge where dozens of petrochemical plants dot the landscape.
One sign posted by a local advocacy group warns the town's 29,000 residents that they are "more likely to get cancer due to chloroprene air emissions." The warning refers to the Denka Performance Elastomer plant at the edge of town, where a vast network of pipes and valves stand testament to industry.
The facility looms over Fifth Ward Elementary School, where children run around the playground oblivious to the toxic emissions in the air.
The plant, formerly operated by DuPont, employs more than 200 workers and has been in this spot for nearly 50 years. The facility plays a vital manufacturing role as the nation's only producer of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that's found in everything from gaskets and hoses to fishing waders and wetsuits. But it also emits 99% of the nation's chloroprene pollution, according to the EPA. Chloroprene is the main chemical used in the production of neoprene.
In 2010, the EPA determined that chloroprene is "likely carcinogenic to humans," meaning studies showed it likely causes cancer in people. The EPA has not set a legal limit for chloroprene emissions. But according to a May 2016 memo, federal regulators said the "upper limit of acceptability" for cancer risk was an annual average of 0.2 micrograms of chloroprene per cubic meter. Anything more than that would increase the risk of developing cancer, the EPA determined.
Residents say they were largely unaware of the 2010 EPA finding. But in December 2015, the EPA updated its National Air Toxics Assessment map, which showed an elevated risk of cancer around the plant -- prompting Denka to enter into an agreement with the state of Louisiana to voluntarily reduce chloroprene emissions by 85%.
Tensions in the community mounted after Denka representatives and state environmental officials briefed the public on the agreement.
The town hall meetings may have been intended to reassure residents, but they only seemed to create more questions: Residents wondered why they weren't warned years before and said their complaints have been ignored.
While Denka agreed to the voluntary 85% reduction, it disputes the EPA's 0.2 recommendation and insists its own research shows no connection between chloroprene and cancer. Denka is a Japanese chemical company that bought the plant from DuPont in 2015.
Denka officials say the EPA based its cancer estimate on faulty science and have demanded that the EPA issue a correction. The company commissioned and submitted a study that argued chloroprene's classification should be changed from "likely carcinogenic to humans" to "possibly carcinogenic" -- and that the 0.2 guideline should be changed to 31.2, more than 150 times the EPA's recommendation.
An EPA spokesman told CNN the agency is reviewing the company's complaint but indicated the science behind the agency's findings was solid.
In the spring of 2016, the EPA installed six canisters near the plant -- including at the hospital, levee and two local schools -- to collect air samples. Every three days, the air quality is tested. The daily readings have been jarring -- 10 times, 50 times and 100 times the EPA's "upper limit of acceptability" for cancer risk. On one occasion last November, the reading spiked at the levee and tested 700 times the recommended cancer risk, according the EPA data.
At the elementary school, the average concentration from May 2016 to August 2017 was more than 34 times the EPA's recommendation.
"Our primary concern is with exposures over a lifetime," the EPA's spokesman wrote CNN in an email. "If the concentrations were to persist at current levels for a lifetime, there is potential for adverse health effects. This is why EPA and the state are working with Denka to reduce emissions."
Residents aren't satisfied with the 85% solution. They've rallied together to form the Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish. Many wear T-shirts that read: "Only 0.2 will do."
In June, 13 residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the plant, aimed at forcing the company to reduce emissions to meet the 0.2 EPA risk recommendation.
Pollution from the facility, the suit alleges, is "sufficient to cause physical discomfort and annoyance to plaintiffs, who must often confine themselves indoors to escape the excess concentration of chloroprene emission."
"In addition, the excess concentrations of chloroprene emissions lead to a reasonable and justified fear of cancer," the suit says.
LAPLACE, Louisiana (CNN) - Geraldine Watkins sits at the kitchen table in her ranch home, rattling off the names of friends and relatives in her small Louisiana town who've died of cancer over the last 40 years.
Her grandchildren suffer an array of ailments, from skin conditions to breathing problems. Her 7-year-old great-grandson's breathing is so labored, she says, "you can feel his heart trying to jump out of his chest."
Watkins lives in the shadow of a plant that spews chloroprene -- a chemical so toxic the Environmental Protection Agency says nearby residents face the highest risk in the country of developing cancer from air toxins.
"You gotta live here to try to breathe the air, drink the water, see the children so sick and watch people die," Watkins says. "Industry is wonderful to have, but if it's killing the people in the area that they live in, what good is industry?"
Watkins is a worthy advocate, a 76-year-old great-grandmother challenging those in power. Her words are often punctuated by folksy aphorisms: "Nothing beats a failure but a try," she says.
And try she will.
The town of LaPlace, Louisiana, lies along the Mississippi River, a stone's throw from Lake Pontchartrain and the Maurepas Swamp. It sits in the heart of an area that's become known by locals as "Cancer Alley," a vast industrial stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge where dozens of petrochemical plants dot the landscape.
One sign posted by a local advocacy group warns the town's 29,000 residents that they are "more likely to get cancer due to chloroprene air emissions." The warning refers to the Denka Performance Elastomer plant at the edge of town, where a vast network of pipes and valves stand testament to industry.
The facility looms over Fifth Ward Elementary School, where children run around the playground oblivious to the toxic emissions in the air.
The plant, formerly operated by DuPont, employs more than 200 workers and has been in this spot for nearly 50 years. The facility plays a vital manufacturing role as the nation's only producer of neoprene, a synthetic rubber that's found in everything from gaskets and hoses to fishing waders and wetsuits. But it also emits 99% of the nation's chloroprene pollution, according to the EPA. Chloroprene is the main chemical used in the production of neoprene.
In 2010, the EPA determined that chloroprene is "likely carcinogenic to humans," meaning studies showed it likely causes cancer in people. The EPA has not set a legal limit for chloroprene emissions. But according to a May 2016 memo, federal regulators said the "upper limit of acceptability" for cancer risk was an annual average of 0.2 micrograms of chloroprene per cubic meter. Anything more than that would increase the risk of developing cancer, the EPA determined.
Residents say they were largely unaware of the 2010 EPA finding. But in December 2015, the EPA updated its National Air Toxics Assessment map, which showed an elevated risk of cancer around the plant -- prompting Denka to enter into an agreement with the state of Louisiana to voluntarily reduce chloroprene emissions by 85%.
Tensions in the community mounted after Denka representatives and state environmental officials briefed the public on the agreement.
The town hall meetings may have been intended to reassure residents, but they only seemed to create more questions: Residents wondered why they weren't warned years before and said their complaints have been ignored.
While Denka agreed to the voluntary 85% reduction, it disputes the EPA's 0.2 recommendation and insists its own research shows no connection between chloroprene and cancer. Denka is a Japanese chemical company that bought the plant from DuPont in 2015.
Denka officials say the EPA based its cancer estimate on faulty science and have demanded that the EPA issue a correction. The company commissioned and submitted a study that argued chloroprene's classification should be changed from "likely carcinogenic to humans" to "possibly carcinogenic" -- and that the 0.2 guideline should be changed to 31.2, more than 150 times the EPA's recommendation.
An EPA spokesman told CNN the agency is reviewing the company's complaint but indicated the science behind the agency's findings was solid.
In the spring of 2016, the EPA installed six canisters near the plant -- including at the hospital, levee and two local schools -- to collect air samples. Every three days, the air quality is tested. The daily readings have been jarring -- 10 times, 50 times and 100 times the EPA's "upper limit of acceptability" for cancer risk. On one occasion last November, the reading spiked at the levee and tested 700 times the recommended cancer risk, according the EPA data.
At the elementary school, the average concentration from May 2016 to August 2017 was more than 34 times the EPA's recommendation.
"Our primary concern is with exposures over a lifetime," the EPA's spokesman wrote CNN in an email. "If the concentrations were to persist at current levels for a lifetime, there is potential for adverse health effects. This is why EPA and the state are working with Denka to reduce emissions."
Residents aren't satisfied with the 85% solution. They've rallied together to form the Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish. Many wear T-shirts that read: "Only 0.2 will do."
In June, 13 residents filed a class-action lawsuit against the plant, aimed at forcing the company to reduce emissions to meet the 0.2 EPA risk recommendation.
Pollution from the facility, the suit alleges, is "sufficient to cause physical discomfort and annoyance to plaintiffs, who must often confine themselves indoors to escape the excess concentration of chloroprene emission."
"In addition, the excess concentrations of chloroprene emissions lead to a reasonable and justified fear of cancer," the suit says.