Residents of Cancer Town urge tougher measures to monitor toxins
by Oliver Laughland in Reserve, Louisiana from Environment | The Guardian on (#4Z9EF)
The town at the center of a Guardian series, where the cancer risk is 50 times the national average, is critical of a planned monitoring system
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.
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