Cancer Alley

Cancer Alley is the regional nickname given to an 85-mile (137 km) stretch of land along the <a href="/facts/Mississippi_River/RduarPzj">Mississippi River</a> between <a href="/facts/Baton_Rouge,_Louisiana/21SGK7VC">Baton Rouge</a> and <a href="/facts/New_Orleans/IgCn61KH">New Orleans</a>, in the <a href="/facts/River_Parishes/23Lp9ahg">River Parishes</a> of <a href="/facts/Louisiana/2GvfFcKE">Louisiana</a>, which contains over 200 <a href="/facts/Petrochemical_industry/h8WLR1kx">petrochemical plants</a> and <a href="/facts/Oil_refinery/yeaW0UMv">refineries</a>. As of 2012, this area accounted for 25% of the <a href="/facts/Petrochemical/mzYsaxng">petrochemical</a> production in the United States. By the 1970s the EPA documented serious water and air pollution. Environmentalists consider the region a <a href="/facts/Sacrifice_zone/BPgB8d58">sacrifice zone</a> where rates of cancer caused by air pollution exceed the <a href="/facts/Federal_government_of_the_United_States/VJCxUaf7">federal government</a>'s own limits of acceptable risk.
Community leaders such as <a href="/facts/Sharon_Lavigne/S7nU7qpA">Sharon Lavigne</a> have led the charge in protesting the expansion of the petrochemical industry in Cancer Alley, as well as addressing the associated <a href="/facts/Racial_inequality_in_the_United_States/Y6kDT0hw">racial</a> and <a href="/facts/Income_inequality_in_the_United_States/CFsMFVqs">economic</a> disparities.
Cancer Alley in a larger sense extends further west along the Gulf Coast into Texas to the area of <a href="/facts/Freeport,_Texas/ecwo5n4D">Freeport, Texas</a>.

Cancer Alley open-in-new

Cancer Alley