Louisiana Weakened Community Air Monitoring As Industry Pushed Back
In Louisiana’s petrochemical belt, some of the people most exposed to toxic air have the least information about what they are breathing. A new investigation by the nonprofit newsroom Floodlight, produced in partnership with The Guardian and with contributions from the Louisiana Illuminator, finds that the state’s public air monitors are frequently located miles from major industrial polluters and fail to test for some of the most dangerous chemicals released along the corridor between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.
That stretch of roughly 85 miles, widely known as “Cancer Alley,” is home to dozens of refineries and chemical plants and to many predominantly Black communities.