Thousands of people living near a company’s chemical plant that regularly releases a cancer-causing chemical in the air face danger in southeastern Louisiana, federal officials say.
Exposure to the chemical, chloroprene, is hazardous and linked to developing lung and liver cancer.
For those in the communities surrounding Denka Performance Elastomers’ facility in St. John the Baptist Parish, their cancer risk rises each day they breathe in the high levels of chloroprene emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Teens under 16, children and babies are more at risk than adults, according to a lawsuit filed Feb. 28 by the Justice Department on behalf of the EPA. The area around the chemical plant is home to numerous residences and schools and about 20% of the population living within 2.5 miles of Denka is under the age of 18, according to officials.
The lawsuit filed against Denka aims to force the Japanese company to significantly reduce its chloroprene emissions at the LaPlace facility.
Currently, infants who breathe in the highest measured chloroprene levels from the facility “will exceed an estimated lifetime of acceptable excess cancer risk within approximately their first two years of life” if emission rates continue as is, a complaint says.
In October, the Environmental Protection Agency published a letter about its investigation into how the facility’s air pollution has disproportionately affected the majority Black residents who live in the region.
Denka “has not moved far enough or fast enough to reduce emissions or ensure the safety of the surrounding community,” EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan said in a news release. “This action is not the first step we have taken to reduce risks to the people living in Saint John the Baptist Parish, and it will not be the last.”
McClatchy News left a message for Denka seeking comment and didn’t receive a response.
For Denka to comply with any court orders, it may depend on DuPont Specialty Products, a company which owns the land where the Denka facility is located, according to the complaint. DuPont is also named as a defendant.
DuPont spokesman Daniel Turner told McClatchy News the company is reviewing the complaint and declined to comment on the pending litigation.
The EPA and Denka’s air monitoring near the facility have previously found the long-term chloroprene concentrations “are as high as 14 times the levels recommended for a 70-year lifetime of exposure,” officials said.
More on chloroprene and why Denka produces the chemical
Denka’s facility makes neoprene, a synthetic rubber material used to manufacture a variety of items including drink cozies, laptop sleeves, seat belts, hoses, orthopedic braces and wetsuits, officials said in the release.
Chloroprene is a colorless, flammable and hazardous liquid chemical that helps produce neoprene and gets released into the air from the facility as a result, according to officials.
In the U.S., neoprene has only been manufactured at one facility, Denka’s, since 2008, the complaint says.
The EPA says short term exposure to high amounts of chloroprene can cause a range of symptoms, including:
- Headaches
- Dizziness
- Irritability
- Rapid heart rate
- Gastrointestinal issues
- Dermatitis
- Temporary hair loss
- Damage to eye corneas
Long term exposure, in addition to cancer risks, can cause:
- Breathing issues
- Skin and eye irritation
- Chest pains
- Hair loss
- Neurological symptoms such as dizziness, trouble sleeping and headaches
- Fatigue
The EPA concluded chloroprene is likely carcinogenic in a peer-reviewed analysis published in 2010.
The agency found children “accumulate excess lifetime cancer risk from breathing chloroprene faster than adults,” according to officials.
Breathing chloroprene causes the body’s cells to mutate, which heightens the risk of developing certain cancers, the complaint notes.
The communities living near the Denka Facility
Denka’s chloroprene emissions taint the air in LaPlace, Reserve and Edgard in southern Louisiana, where thousands live and work, according to the complaint.
U.S. census data from 2020 shows over 28,000 people lived in LaPlace, about 8,500 lived in Reserve and nearly 2,000 lived in Edgard.
Roughly 15,000 to 17,000 people live within 2.5 miles of Denka’s facility, according to the complaint.
The schools closest to the facility include the Fifth Ward Elementary School, where over 300 children go to school and is about a half-mile away, and East St. John High School, where about 1,200 students attend about 1.5 miles away, the complaint says.
“The increased cancer risk that the communities near the Facility are currently being exposed to because of Denka’s chloroprene emissions presents an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and welfare,” the complaint says.
Neoprene has been manufactured at the facility for decades, the complaint says. The facility has a history of emitting even higher chloroprene levels than it does currently, according to officials.
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