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Concept
Cancer Alley
Summary
Cancer Alley ( Allée du Cancer) is the regional nickname given to an stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 200 petrochemical plants and refineries. This area accounts for 25% of the petrochemical production in the United States. Environmentalists consider the region a sacrifice zone where rates of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the US government’s own limits of acceptable risk. Others have referred to the same region as "Death Alley."
A 2012 study using 2005 data found that in Cancer Alley, forty-six individuals per one million are at risk of developing cancer, compared with the national average of roughly thirty individuals per one million. The same study found that racial disparity in cancer risk from air pollution worsens as minority concentration increases across the region. Individuals in black-dominant areas are 16% more at risk than those in white-dominant areas, and people in low-income tracts also bear a cumulative risk 12% more than those in high-income tracts. Community leaders such as Sharon Lavigne have led the charge in protesting the expansion of the petrochemical industry in Cancer Alley, as well as addressing the associated racial and economic disparities.
In 1987, when residents of one street in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, a primarily African-American and low-income community, noticed the abundance of cancer cases within their community, "Cancer Alley" became the new name for Jacobs Drive. As similar incidences became more and more prevalent in surrounding areas, the "alley" grew to encompass an eighty-five-mile stretch along the Mississippi River stretching from New Orleans to Baton Rouge and includes the parishes of East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, Iberville, Ascension, St. James, St. John the Baptist, St. Charles, Jefferson, and Orleans.
St. James Parish consists of 48.8% African American residents. 16.6% of its population lives in poverty. Per a 2003 study, this demographic is not reflected in the employment at the manufacturing plants.
Official source
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