To make neoprene, the plant emits chloroprene, classified by the federal government as a "likely" carcinogen. The EPA classified chloroprene as a likely carcinogen in 2010 and has been closely monitoring air quality near the Denka Performance Elastomer neoprene plant since 2016. “It was like a heat-seeking missile that zeroed in on the most vulnerable populations,” Bullard said, “and the result was this death bomb.” The long line of racism – from slavery to decades of discrimination – entrenched along that riverfront territory is a key reason COVID-19 is spreading there so quickly, said Robert Bullard, a distinguished professor of Urban Planning and Environmental Policy at Texas Southern University who is considered the father of the modern environmental justice movement. The 100-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge is known as “Cancer Alley” because of its high number of petrochemical plants. The largest of those, Denka Performance Elastomer, releases the highest amount – more than 75,000 pounds of chloroprene in 2018, or 42 times the amount of the next-highest emitter, EPA records show. Plants in the parish emit chemicals deemed likely carcinogens by the EPA. Environmental Protection Agency's National Air Toxics Assessment data. Sources: Milken Institute Research Department COVID-19 Community Explorer, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, U.S. “We’ve gotten the worst of everything, and we’re getting the worst of this.” “This is a result of historical racism,” longtime Reserve resident and activist Robert Taylor said. Nearly 60% of the parish’s COVID-19 victims were Black and many came from Reserve. That’s nearly double the state death rate. John the Baptist Parish, with a population of 43,446, had recorded 105 deaths as of Oct.
More than 11% of residents in the top 20 counties – 4,883 people – don’t have health insurance, the data shows. Seven of the top 10 have populations where people of color make up the majority, the analysis found. counties with the highest COVID-19 death rates, according to data compiled by USA TODAY. John the Baptist Parish, which includes Reserve, has consistently ranked among the top 30 U.S. Since the coronavirus emerged here in March, St. continues to grapple with a virus that disproportionately attacks people of color, residents and activists in Reserve ask why Black Americans have been left in such close proximity to environmental hazards, making them vulnerable in the path of the virus. All are preexisting conditions that render people more vulnerable to COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.Īs the U.S.
Its residents once worked the local sugar cane fields now they pray for medical help as they endure high rates of cancer, respiratory illness, diabetes and kidney disease. The transition of Reserve from slave plantation to toxin-choked community shows what systemic racism looks like.
In August, Wilson’s sister, Shirley Jacob, already suffering congestive heart failure and other ailments, also contracted COVID-19. The cancer had consumed his body in two months, stunning the family. Just four years earlier, Wilson had buried her older brother, James Duhe, who died of liver cancer at age 61. Wilson sat up in bed, cold shivers running through her. His magnetic smile, his love of food and travel, his spontaneous visits – all gone. She hung up the phone and called her other brother, cried, showered and cried some more before finally falling asleep.Īt 2:30 a.m., the phone call came, springing her awake. Wilson’s younger brother, Jules Duhe, had been on a ventilator fighting COVID-19 since April. Your brother won’t survive the night, he told her. – The doctor called on Mother’s Day with the news Karen Wilson had dreaded for weeks.
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