Residents of Cancer Town urge tougher measures to monitor toxins

Environmental Protection Agency officials on Tuesday pleaded with community members in Reserve, Louisiana, to back a new air monitoring system being installed by the agency, which they claim will better measure pollutants from a nearby chemical plant emitting the likely human carcinogen chloroprene.

Reserve, the subject of a year-long Guardian series, Cancer Town, is home to the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxins, according to EPA data, which found that a census tract next door to the plant has a cancer risk 50 times the national average.

The EPA has been monitoring chloroprene emissions at six sites near the plant, which is run by the Japanese chemicals firm Denka, since 2016 but recently announced plans to alter how it records emissions. The agency currently takes a routine air reading once every six days, with chloroprene emissions regularly dozens of times above the lifetime exposure threshold recommended by the agency of 0.2 micrograms per cubic meter.