• “Cancer Alley” is an 85 mile-long stretch of the Mississippi river lined with oil refineries and petrochemical plants, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
  • People living in the area are more than 50 times as likely to get cancer than the average American.
  • For years, residents have suffered from illnesses, but they’ve been unable to prove a causal connection between industry and the health effects.
  • COVID-19 caused by the novel coronavirus is the latest threat to residents. Inside ‘Cancer Alley’, St Johns the Baptist Parish has the highest death rate per capita of any county in the US.
  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

The coronavirus pandemic is hitting people living inside ‘Cancer Alley’ hard.

Surrounded by smokestacks, ‘Cancer Alley’ is one of the most polluted places in America. It got its name through the high number of people living with cancer in the alley, which runs for about 85 miles along the Mississippi River, from New Orleans to Baton Rouge. It’s made up of a dense concentration of oil refineries and petrochemical plants that run alongside suburbs and vulnerable communities.

There, people don’t need a weatherman to see which way the wind blows. According to ProPublica, they see cancer everywhere.

Rolling Stone called it the “frontline of environmental racism.”

According to the CDC, COVID-19 cases are more severe to people with health conditions aggravated by pollution. Vice reported on April 8, St Johns the Baptist Parish had the highest death rate per capita of any county in the US, with 24 deaths. St James Parish, not far away, had the fourth highest death rate with six deaths.

But while residents think the industry is responsible for health problems, it's hard to prove a causal link.

As environmental reporter Sharon Lerner wrote for The New York Times, "Even when there is severe suffering and a seemingly obvious culprit, it's often impossible to pin blame on any single cause."

Here's what Cancer Alley is like.


Entering Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley,' an industrial, polluted stretch of land between train tracks and a twisting river, might not be good for your health.

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. ' Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: The Intercept


Unlike the black soot that used to linger in mining towns, here, the pollution registers quietly. It's in the oily taste of the water, on the blackened leaves of fruit trees, and in the acrid odor in the air, according to the Washington Post.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: Rolling Stone, NPR, The Nation, Washington Post


To get an idea of the toxicity, people living in Reserve, Louisiana, are 50 times more likely to get cancer than an average American.

Foto: Milton is taken by boat from a flooded neighborhood, Thursday, Aug. 30, 2012, in Reserve, La. Source: Eric Gay / AP

Source: The Guardian


People's lifetime risk of cancer in St. John the Baptist, which is about 2 square miles, is 800 times higher than an average American, according to the EPA's most recent air pollution report in 2015.

Foto: Edgard Louisiana Cathedral in St. John the Baptist. Source: Wikimedia

It has one petrochemical plant for every 656 residents.

As of April 8, St John the Baptist Parsh had 24 deaths, making it the highest death rate per capita of any county in the US, according to Vice.


In total, about 150 facilities line the alley. It's the second-biggest producer of petrochemicals in the country, after Texas. But the key difference is that Texas' industry is spread out over hundreds of miles.

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times


Locals live in the plants' shadows. Many see smokestacks from their windows. Others struggle to hear cicadas over the hum of machinery. Pollution wafts into houses, smelling "pungent and rotten," like "singed plastic" or "poison, according to The Intercept.

Foto: A house sits along the long stretch of River Road by the Mississippi River and the many chemical plants October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: The Intercept, The Nation


People in St. Gabriel, one of the towns, no longer sit outside in the evenings, since chemicals released at night sometimes fall like yellow raindrops or "golden mist."

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: ProPublica


Rolling Stone called it the frontline of "environmental racism," a term first used in the 1980s that refers to segregation around who gets exposed to contaminated elements.

Foto: A mound of oil drums near the Baton Rouge ExxonMobil Refinery along the Mississippi River in December 1972. Source: Messina, John, 1940-, Photographer (NARA record: 8464458) - U.S. National Archives and Records Administration

Source: MSNBC


Towns and cities, like St. James, Reserve, Burton Lane, Freetown, St. Gabriel, and Bayou Goula, are surrounded by petrochemical companies.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

The industrial alley's pollution is a long-term problem and concerns three groups.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

One group includes the communities that live in the smokestacks' shadow.

Foto: Oil and chemical refinery plants cover the landscape, next to African American communities along the Mississippi River, October, 1998, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Source: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis / Getty

Sharon Lavigne, founder of protest group "Rise St. James," who recently changed its name to Coalition Against Death Alley, told Rolling Stone that locals can do one of three things: get sick, move away, or die.

Foto: Protesting "Cancer Alley." Source: StoryCenter / Youtube

Sources: The Nation, The Intercept, Rolling Stone


Another resident and protester is Robert Taylor. He has lived in the alley his whole life. He's lost his mother, brother, sister, nephew, and several neighbors to cancer. His wife is currently fighting cancer, and his daughter has a rare disease that's linked to chloroprene.

Foto: Robert Taylor. Source: Youtube / University Network for Human Rights

He told The Guardian his community was the lowest-hanging fruit, and they were okay "with just wiping us out."


Reverend Dr. William J. Barber has been helping the communities fight pollution. He told Rolling Stone that the land that once held people captive as slaves now holds them captive through pollution.

Foto: Reverend Dr. William J. Barber II speaks during a revival service to address moral public policies at Bethel AME Church in Boston on Aug. 1, 2016. Source: Keith Bedford/The Boston Globe / Getty

Source: Rolling Stone


"It is killing people by over-polluting them with toxins in their water and in their air," he said. "This is slavery of another kind.

Foto: Oil and chemical refinery plants cover the landscape, next to African American communities along the Mississippi River, October, 1998, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Source: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis / Getty

Source: Rolling Stone


The second group is petrochemical companies, like Shell, Koch, Denka, and ExxonMobil. The industry has been a fixture in the area since the end of World War II, when America began to demand synthetic materials.

Foto: Overall view of large chemical plant w. many tall smoke stacks belching steam laced w. toxic chemicals in an area known as Cancer Alley in 1991. Source: Taro Yamasaki/The LIFE Images Collection via Getty Images/Getty

Sources: The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, ProPublica


Chemical plants replaced sugar plantations. Originally, they clustered around Baton Rouge and New Orleans, but they soon began to spread out along the river. They were attracted to the area's cheap land and easy river access.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: The Guardian, Los Angeles Times, ProPublica


The companies were also looking for places with low populations. Craig Colten, a Louisiana State University geography professor told ProPublica, the black American communities they surrounded were effectively invisible.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: ProPublica


Even the dead aren't left alone. Bishop cemetery, which holds the bodies of slaves and descendants from a nearby plantation, is within the grounds of the Marathon Petroleum Company.

Foto: A cemetery stands in stark contrast to the chemical plants that surround it October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: MSNBC, The Washington Post


Finally, there are the governing bodies. One of the reasons for the industrial boom is that Louisiana has had a tax exemption scheme, called the Industrial Tax Exemption Program, since the 1930s.

Foto: Louisiana Democratic governor-elect John Bel Edwards in Baton Rouge, La., Monday, Nov. 16, 2015. Source: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Although it was reformed by Gov. John Bel Edwards more recently so some property taxes can be imposed.


Since the 1960s, when petrochemical plants like Dow Chemical began to open, locals noticed signs of pollution, including the loss of lightning bugs.

Foto: Lightening bugs. Source: Edgard Garrido/Reuters

Source: The Washington Post


In the 1970s, the area became known as America's Ruhr, because it produced 60% of America's nitrogen fertilizers and vinyl chloride, and a quarter of America's chlorine.

Foto: The Ruhr district in Germany in 1981. Source: Alain MINGAM/Gamma-Rapho via Getty

Source: The Washington Post


In 1976, as Coast Guard divers tried to collect sediment samples from the Mississippi river, their hands were covered in second-degree burns.

Foto: Coast Guard divers. Source: Chief Petty Officer Sara Mooers/US Coast Guard

Source: The Washington Post


In 1981, 30 grazing cows died overnight grazing near Geismer, a predominantly black town next to St. Gabriel. This caused people to start worrying about the pollution.

Foto: Source: William Thomas Cain/Getty Images

Source: The Washington Post


In 1986, a woman in Plaquemine was knocked off her ride-on lawnmower when Dow Chemical plant released a cloud of chlorine. She told The Washington Post, "I respect chlorine just like I respect a gun."

Foto: Abandoned house in Plaquemine. Source: Wikimedia

Sources: The Washington Post, ProPublica


That same year a sign was erected on the side of the road, with the question, "Bhopal on the Bayou?" This was referring to a disaster at a pesticide plant in India that killed 2,000 people when a toxic gas escaped.

Foto: Picture dated 04 December 1984, shows man victim of the Bhopal tragedy. A poison gas leak from the Union Carbide factory killed 2,500 persons and injured around 10,000. On background is the site of the factory. Source: Bedi / AFP / Getty

Source: The New York Times


In 1989, the Los Angeles Times reported that, over three years, women in St. Gabriel had 75 miscarriages. It was a one-in-three ratio. The findings were contested by chemical companies.

Foto: A family leaves Sunday church services surrounded by chemical plants in October of 1998 in Lions, Louisiana. Source: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis / Getty

A spokesperson for Louisiana Chemical Association said the problem could have come from too much sexual intercourse.

Still, the abortion issue received coverage, and was one of the key issues that helped boost activism from locals.


By the beginning of the 1990s, there were signs, but no hard evidence. Taylor told WBUR News that while people suspected the emissions were making people ill, taking on these companies was too much. They felt powerless.

Foto: Robert Taylor in Cancer Alley. Source: AJ+ / Youtube

Source: WBUR News


The contrast in power between petrochemical companies and locals is stark. Residents of St. John earn on average $17,000. Whilst the chemical sector generates $80 billion for Louisiana every year.

Foto: Contrast of power in Cancer Alley. Source: AJ+ / Youtube

Source: The New York Times, The Guardian


One example of a harmful chemical is chloroprene, a colorless gas. For 47 years, DuPont produced it. Chloroprene is used as a base for neoprene. Neoprene is used to make wetsuits, gaskets, and hoses.

Foto: A tangle of neoprene, hoses, and rubber, BUD/S students await instructions in full scuba gear before scuba training. Source: Richard Schoenberg/Corbis / Getty

Sources: The Guardian, The Intercept


The invisible gas induces headaches, rashes, and heart palpitations, weakens immune systems, and causes stomach and kidney problems. But no one could definitively say how dangerous chloroprene was.

Foto: No swimming in Cancer Alley. Source: NowThis News / Youtube

Sources: NPR, The Nation


...even though The Guardian found a 1956 DuPont technical manual that described the dangers of chloroprene.

Foto: Dupont corporate headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware. The Guardian found the records in Dupont's archives in Wilmington. Source: Mark Makela/Getty

The manual said it could enter the body through skin or inhalation, and high concentrations would cause "depression of the central nervous system and damage to vital organs."

When The Guardian requested comment DuPont said it was Denka which now produced chloroprene, since it had sold production.


The Guardian also reported that Dupont experimented with chloroprene on rats in 1971, and three out of 10 died from exposure.

Foto: A rat that was used for experiments, although not by DuPont. Source: Fritz Goro/The LIFE Picture Collection / Getty

In 1999, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified chloroprene as "possibly carcinogenic to humans."

Six years later, in 2005, the National Toxicology Program's Report on Carcinogens described as "reasonably anticipated" to be carcinogenic.


Still, no correlation between the emissions and locals' health was established. The state was strapped for resources, and couldn't afford to research it. There wasn't even enough money to properly monitor the chemical plants.

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 11, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: Los Angeles Times


In the early 2000s, New Sarpy, another town in the alley, was in the media. New Sarpy was bordered by Orion Refining Corp, which burned off about 772 tons of sulfur dioxide between 1999 and 2001.

Foto: The Orion refinery located in New Sarpy. Source: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times / Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald Tribune


Residents felt the effects of the pollution. Resident Dorothy Jenkins' oranges turned black in her backyard. She said it was so bad she sometimes had to put her head in the fridge to breathe.

Foto: New Sarpy resident Dorothy Jenkins has been protesting the Orion refinery which is located in an area known as "cancer alley" and has brought forward litigation against the company. Source: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald Tribune


In 2001, Orion had a big fire, prompting locals to visit former Sen. John B. Breaux for his help. But he had different priorities, and had one of his staff take the meeting.

Foto: Sen. John Breaux, D-La., speaks to the press in 2004. Source: Chris Maddaloni / Roll Call / Getty

Between 1998 and 2000, he wrote to the EPA five times asking for it to delay compliance with federal pollution standards. The EPA agreed.

Source: Los Angeles Times


In 2001, Orion hired his son John Breaux Jr. as a lobbyist. By 2003, the senator's son had been paid at least $120,000. The sign says "land sharks" because Orion was gradually expanding closer and closer to the town.

Foto: A sign posted in the lawn of New Sarpy resident Don Wonston protests the Orion refinery which can be seen from Winston's front porch. Source: Rick Loomis/Los Angeles Times via Getty

Sources: Los Angeles Times, Herald Tribune


The EPA did investigate Orion for failing to comply with air pollution requirements when upgrading plants. But its investigation was weakened when Breaux pushed for former President George W. Bush's administration to take it easy on air pollution rules for chemical plants.

Foto: Former President George W. Bush with former Sen. John Breaux. Source: Steve Liss /The LIFE Images Collection / Getty

Source: Los Angeles Times


Louisiana's air pollution regulations didn't help. Unlike Texas, the state doesn't measure air pollution in areas near polluters, only in the air around plants.

Foto: Oil and chemical refinery plants cover the landscape, next to African American communities along the Mississippi River, October, 1998, near Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Source: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis / Getty

Another thing that could harm an accurate measurement is that Louisiana measures only one chemical at a time.


Some pollution measurements have improved. The EPA requires plants that are emitting over a certain threshold to report it. Unlike the national trend, which was a 16% decrease over the last 30 years, plants in Cancer Alley reported toxic releases grew by 25% in that time.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: ProPublica


On the health side of things, researcher Wilma Subra told The Nation it was difficult to demonstrate increased cancer rates because the tumor registry used to only report data on parish levels. This made it impossible to measure differences within parishes.

Foto: A cemetery stands in stark contrast to the chemical plants that surround it October 15, 2013 Source: Giles Clarke / Getty

Another thing that skewed records was that anyone who had insurance often got treatment for their cancer outside of the state, skewing where the cancer was reported.


What worries locals is that the chemical industry continues to grow. Since 2015, seven new petrochemical facilities have been approved, which the EPA said would be "major sources," of air pollution. Another five await approval.

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs of the area known as 'Cancer Alley' October 15, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: ProPublica


In December 2015, The EPA released a report on toxic air. It showed that the 10,000 residents were at a much higher risk of harm from the pollution.

Foto: Then-head of the EPA Gina McCarthy. Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty

Sources: The Guardian, The New York Times


Despite the findings, nothing changed.

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

In an opinion piece for The New York Times, environmental reporter Sharon Lerner wrote, "But as the people of St. John soon learned, though lawmakers can use the risk levels from IRIS to legally limit chemicals, set levels at federal cleanup sites or shutter factories that emit them, they don't have to do any of those things."

Source: The New York Times


Examples of pollution continue. In November 2017, Fifth Ward elementary school, which had 400 students, had Chloroprene levels 755 times above EPA guidelines.

Foto: An empty school bus idles amongst a field of chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: The Guardian


In 2018, Governor John Bel Edwards announced Formosa Plastics planned on opening a $9.4 billion industrial factory, with 14 plants across 2,300 acres in St. James Parish. The plant would create plastic bottles and grocery bags and would double toxic emissions in the area.

Foto: Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards testifies in on Capitol Hill in Washington. Source: Associated Press/Molly Riley

Source: The Guardian, The Nation


Across the river, Wanhua Chemical Group plans to build a $1.25 billion plant over 250 acres to produce a plastic that's used to make polyurethane foam, for furniture and beds.

Foto: Close-up detail of Polyurethane foam packaging. Source: Simon Lees/Digital Camera Magazine/Future / Getty

But in August, the company announced the project was under review, and that another location was under review.

According to The Advocate, while the reason for the review wasn't clarified, the company had previously expressed concern over President Donald Trump's trade war with China.


In 2019, Hampton and Taylor visited their Congressman Cedric Richmond for his help. He's the only Democrat in Congress from Louisiana. Richmond spoke with them for two minutes. He acknowledged their concerns, urged them to vote against President Donald Trump, and suggested they write a letter to the chemical plant.

Foto: Cedric Richmond Source: AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File

Source: The Guardian


As for Chloroprene, in 2019, EPA regional director David Gray told citizens that he thought it was unlikely the EPA would ever set a legally enforceable standard for chloroprene.

Foto: Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks to EPA staff, Wednesday, July 11, 2018, at EPA Headquarters in Washington. Source: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

"The fact of the matter is there is a sole source of chloroprene in the United States and it's here," he said.


In August 2019, the Louisiana health officials announced it would conduct a door-to-door inquiry into how many people had developed cancer. This could help with health records, but it is a small victory.

Foto: A community theater stands in stark contrast to the chemical plants that surround it October 12, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Source: Mother Jones


As recently as June, the risk of cancer in the area was up to 1,505 cancer cases per million people, nearly 50 times the national average. Lavigne told Rolling Stone, "We are boxed in from all sides by plants, tank farms, and noisy railroad tracks. We live in constant fear."

Foto: Chemical plants and factories line the roads and suburbs October 14, 2013. Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: House Document, The New York Times, Rolling Stone


In March 2020, to make matters worse, the EPA almost completely suspended its enforcement of environmental laws due to the spread of the coronavirus. A few weeks later, two out of the four top counties for highest COVID-19 death rates in the US were in Cancer Alley.

Foto: Andrew Wheeler, head of the EPA, in March 2020. Source: Drew Angerer/Getty

Sources: Vice, Los Angeles Times


The countless smokestacks, the added threat of the coronavirus, and the continuing struggle to be heard make locals question whether it's worth fighting, or time to up and leave. As Lavigne said, it is one of only three options.

Foto: Smoke billows from one of many chemical plants in the area October 12, 2013. ' Source: Giles Clarke/Getty

Sources: MSNBC, ProPublica, The Nation, The New York Times,