the.com/cancer alley
eighty-five miles of louisiana river where the air itself has a corporate sponsor.
means a heavily industrialized stretch along the mississippi river between baton rouge and new orleans, dense with petrochemical plants and unusually high rates of cancer among nearby residents.
from the river corridor was once lined with sugar plantations; after emancipation, freed communities settled there, and starting in the 1960s oil and chemical companies bought up the land, building over 150 plants on the same soil, often right next to those descendants' towns.
plant densityover 150 facilities along an 85-mile stretch
cancer risksome census tracts rank among the highest in the us
who lives theredisproportionately black communities, many descended from enslaved laborers
nickname originresidents and journalists coined it, not the state
for instance
norco — shell chemical plant sits feet from residential backyards