
What Next - A Polluted Town Fights for Its Right to Breathe
St John the Baptist, Louisiana has by far the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the nation. Why isn't anyone doing anything about it?
Slate News · Slate Podcasts
Audio is streamed directly from the publisher (sphinx.acast.com) as published in their RSS feed. Play Podcasts does not host this file. Rights-holders can request removal through the copyright & takedown page.
Show Notes
For years the residents of St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana thought their town was simply the victim of bad luck. Suffering more than their share of illnesses. Almost everyone in the town knows someone that has died of cancer. It was only in July 2016 that the EPA informed the people of St. John that the local neoprene plant was emitting carcinogens leaving the small town with the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the whole nation. With the residents in a fight for their very lives, what could the way politicians reacted to another town’s poisonous air pollution tell us about why nobody has acted to save St. John, Louisiana?
Guest: Sharon Lerner, environmental reporter at The Intercept
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.