Cancer Alley is an 85-mile-long area along an industrial section of the Mississippi River, known for its abundance of oil refineries and, as the name suggests, cases of cancer.
The area has 45,000 inhabitants and is located in southeastern Louisiana, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. Compared to the rest of the state, Cancer Alley has a higher percentage of Black and poor, illiterate residents.
Once a place of cornfields and sugarcane plantations, it now houses more than 140 petrochemical plants, widespread air pollution, and—as some say—an above-average number of cancer cases. This higher-than-expected number of cancer cases within a geographic region over a specific period is known as a cancer cluster.
The story of Cancer Alley
Before it became what some residents and environmental health experts claim to be a hotspot for cancer activity, Cancer Alley was known as the Chemical Corridor, due to the many oil refineries and chemical plants that dot the landscape.
Some 50 toxic chemicals—including benzene, formaldehyde, and ethylene oxide—circulate in the air there. In the late 1980s, when residents began noticing clusters of cancer cases and miscarriages on the same street or within a few blocks of each other, the Chemical Corridor earned a new nickname—Cancer Alley.
Research shows that certain population groups living in Cancer Alley have higher than normal rates of lung, stomach, and kidney cancer . According to residents, there are also worrying clusters of several other cancers, including rare ones such as neuroblastoma (cancer of nerve cells) and rhabdomyosarcoma (cancer of skeletal muscle).
But one of the most concerning and controversial chemicals in Cancer Alley is chloroprene. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chloroprene is probably carcinogenic to humans.
In 2015, chemical giant DuPont sold its neoprene plant in LaPlace, Louisiana, an area of Cancer Alley, to Tokyo-based Denka Performance Elastomer. In the production of neoprene, a synthetic rubber used in items such as wetsuits, hoses, and orthopedic braces, the Denka plant releases chloroprene into the air.
In 2011, the EPA's National Air Toxic Assessment (NATA) investigated toxic emissions nationwide and published its findings in 2015. When it was determined that the air in LaPlace had higher than expected chloroprene levels, the EPA began working with Denka and the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to reduce chloroprene emissions by 85%.
The National Anti-Cancer Agency (NATA) found that the five counties with the highest estimated cancer risk in the country were in Louisiana. Some say this is at least partly due to the Denka plant and its chloroprene emissions. The state says Denka has now reached the 85% level, but community residents are skeptical. They say that instead of reducing emissions by a certain percentage, emissions should average 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter of air, which the EPA considers a safe level.