The most recent in a series of moves where the Environmental Protection Agency has more resembled a Corporate Protection Agency.
“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to stop monitoring the levels of a chemical that is believed to cause cancer around a controversial St. John the Baptist Parish plant in December, according to the agency.
The Denka Performance Elastomer facility in LaPlace releases chloroprene into the air in the process of manufacturing neoprene, a synthetic rubber used in wetsuits and hoses. Chloroprene was deemed a likely carcinogen by the EPA in 2010.
The agency has been measuring the chemical with air monitors at six sites in the neighborhoods surrounding Denka since 2016. The monitoring began after an EPA analysis examining cancer risks from toxic air emissions in the U.S. estimated that the five census tracts with the highest cancer risk were in the vicinity of the Denka plant.”
