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Cancer Alley

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Coordinates: 30°00′N 90°36′W / 30.0°N 90.6°W / 30.0; -90.6

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Area in Louisiana with larger than usual clusters of cancer patients

A mound of oil drums near the Baton Rouge ExxonMobil Refinery along the Mississippi River in December 1972.<br>Cancer Alley is the regional nickname given to an 184-mile (296 km) stretch of land along the Mississippi River between the Baton Rouge metropolitan area and the Gulf of Mexico, in the River Parishes of Louisiana, which contains over 350 industrial facilities that emit significant amounts of air pollution[1]. Cancer Alley houses the largest concentration of fossil fuel and petrochemical plants and refineries in the Western Hemisphere.[2] As of 2025, this area accounted for 25% of the petrochemical production in the United States.[3]

Environmentalists consider the region a sacrifice zone, which is an area where pollution levels are so significant that they pose considerable dangers to the people who live there, and these people are often marginalized and under-resourced.[4] In Cancer Alley specifically, the pollution caused by the high density of petrochemical companies create a local risk of cancer which is forty-seven times greater than the acceptable threshold set by the U.S. government.[4] The extent of the health risk in this region has been described as being in violation of human rights.[4]

The concentration of industrial petrochemical refineries in predominately African American and indigenous communities places these groups disproportionately in harm's way, as decisions about land use are often beyond their control.[4] Lack of government action has inspired community leaders such as Sharon Lavigne to lead the charge in protesting the expansion of the petrochemical industry in Cancer Alley, as well as address the associated racial and economic disparities.[5] Cancer Alley has been the focus of environmental justice advocates dating as far back as the 1990s, and continues to serve as a landmark example of the systemic failings that perpetuate environmental injustices.[4]

History<br>[edit]

Parishes of Louisiana that comprise "Cancer Alley",[6][7][8] marked in pink<br>Following an oil and gas boom around the time of World War II, a number of refineries were established along the Mississippi River near the Gulf Coast.[9] During the 1950s, many of these facilities relocated from populous areas, such as Baton Rouge and New Orleans, to less densely populated locations.[10] Many relocated to the small communities along the Mississippi River between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, often located on former plantation sites adjacent to communities with significant or majority African American populations.[10][11]

By the 1970s, the area had a proliferation of plants producing vinyl chloride, nitrogen fertilizers, and chlorine.[9] During this time, serious air pollution and water pollution was noted by federal agencies. A United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) report found 66 pollutants in New Orleans drinking water, and 31 lethal chemicals in the air of Plaquemine.[9][12] In 1976, Coast Guard divers retrieving sediment samples from a bayou suffered second-degree burns on their hands.[9] By the early 1980s, residents in the neighborhood of Good Hope had grown accustomed to regular fires at a local oil refinery, and developed their own informal evacuation plans for their occurrences.[9] Despite the known problems with pollution, the petrochemical industry in the area continued unabated, and even continued expanding. In the early 1980s, an oil refinery purchased the land of Good Hope for expansion.[9]

Beginning in the 1980s, locals also perceived certain species of plants and animals becoming less common.[9] By 1988, locals began referring to an area in Chalmette in St. Bernard Parish as "Cancer Alley".[9] The "alley" later 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, Orleans, St. Bernard, and Plaquemines.[7][8][13][2] Cancer Alley in a larger sense extends further west along the Gulf Coast into Texas to the area of Freeport, Texas.[14]

Industrial plants emitting toxic waste in Louisiana continued to proliferate in the 21st century.[10] According to EPA data, the number of industrial plants in Louisiana that reported their toxic releases grew from 255 to 320 from 1988 to 2017, an increase of 25%, even as the number of such plants nationwide dropped by 16% over that period.[10]

Per a 2003 study that surveyed 11 plants in St. James Parish, researchers found that...