Environmental Racism: Louisiana’s Cancer Alley
Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” or “Industrial Corridor” is known as the 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The region’s nickname derives from the deadly cancer-causing environmental pollution produced by its densely populated chemical plants. According to Human Rights Watch, a nonprofit human rights organization, “communities exist side by side with some 200 fossil fuels and petrochemical operations.” This industry has created extreme air and water pollution for local residents and has resulted in the increase of risks to health. Residents have reportedly experienced “elevated heart rates, risks to maternal reproductive health, increased newborn health concerns, cancer, and respiratory illness all at rates higher than the national average”. Systemic racism and historical discriminatory housing policies have forced many Black and low-income residents to live along the industrial corridor, leaving them disproportionately affected by chemical pollution and experiencing higher rates of deadly pollution-related cancer than their white counterparts. This article aims to explore the causes and effects of environmental pollution in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley and explore possible solutions.
Louisiana parishes that comprise "Cancer Alley" Patapsco913, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Historical Causes
Cancer Alley’s roots can be traced back to the Plantation Era and the legacy of slavery. Environmental journalist Dana Drugmand, found that “[the] economic and land use system … over the generations” has shifted from slave plantations to petrochemical plants. The area of Cancer Alley includes St. James, St. Charles, and St. John the Baptist Parish, all of which were previously known as Plantation Country. The descendants of the enslaved African Americans of Plantation Country are the same residents that suffer from the pollution of Cancer Alley. This fuels a cycle of exploitation and systemic racism.
Keele University adds that the location of toxic facilities are highly dependent on race and factories were purposely placed near predominately Black neighborhoods. These areas were seen as nonessential and highly exploitable, making them the perfect area for plant construction. Jim Crow Laws and systemic racism have economically disadvantaged the Black community making relocation impossible. Laws like the Standard State Zoning Enabling Act of 1926 have created the framework for discriminatory housing practices and plant locations. This allowed state legislatures to exclude minorities from protection from industrial enterprises.
Health Effects
Cancer Alley’s high pollution rates create some of the highest cancer and disease risks in the United States. Black residents are disproportionately affected by local pollution and are more likely to contract pollution-caused diseases. These residents also tend to be low-income with little access to healthcare or government assistance. Dangerous chemicals like chloroprene and ethylene oxide are produced in factories surrounding the region. As a result of exposure, residents are more likely to contract liver, lung, and colorectal cancers.
Cancer Alley pollution creates a public health crisis that sacrifices the health of Black citizens in favor of Louisiana’s economic growth. This further prolongs Louisiana’s environmental racism and discrimination towards marginalized communities.
Economic Incentive
Louisiana is known for its lucrative chemical industry with high supplies of natural gas and petroleum. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that, “[Cancer Alley] processes about 25% of the U.S. petrochemical industry’s products, including refining oil and making chemicals.” These petrochemical industries are worth billions of dollars with high demands and support a large workforce of about 255,920 full-time workers. The oil industry has also been found to make up 25% of the Louisiana state economy. The energy sector has been a strong leader in statewide revenue, regulation on plants would be detrimental to local workers, industry, and revenue. Considering Louisiana's economic dependency on chemical plant production, industry job market, and national leadership, the state is unlikely to enforce strict regulations on the petrochemical industry to limit cancer producing pollutants.
Greg Bowser, President of the Louisiana Chemical Association, argues that cancer rates are unrelated to local industry and that there is no Cancer Alley. He adds that genetic and lifestyle factors are the leading causes for cancer and not pollution-related exposure. This represents the manipulative rhetoric many government officials and company owners have forced onto residents. By falsely shifting the burden of cancer onto residents and essentially victim blaming.
Resident Outrage
Residents who fall victim to the toxic air conditions often feel ignored by their local government. Many feel depressed from government inaction and hopeless for change. One resident told NPR news, “I feel like if the pollution doesn’t stop, we will slowly die.” Petrochemical companies and government organizations profit off of the environmental damage most people are burdened to live in. The only recent government action on cancer alley has been public health studies that focus on observation rather than action and prevention. Residents have argued that the government trades the health and safety of Black residents in exchange for economic growth.
Map depicts EPA's estimate of Total Cancer Risk in cases per million people, per the EPA's Air Toxics Screening Assessment, 2019
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has failed to make any lasting change regarding the state of Louisiana’s Cancer Alley. The EPA and the Louisiana government must address environmental racism in Louisiana by analyzing cancer rates in Cancer Alley, current policy, and regulations on chemical plants to help residents achieve healthy air quality and environmental conditions. Livable conditions are a human right. By ignoring the residents of Cancer Alley, the EPA and the Louisiana Government are denying Black Americans living in Cancer Alley human rights needed to live a healthy life. The Louisiana Government and the EPA must create change to change the longstanding health and social inequalities many minorities have historically faced and continue to face today.