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Cancer Alley

en.wikipedia.org

11–20 of 92 posts

Re: Cancer Alley

#11

I'm confused to why there is also a french name. I get that it was french at one point but it was 200 years ago, and afaik very little people in the area still speak french

Well, the whole place is still called Baton Rouge. Anyway there are a few French speakers left. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Louisiana_parishes_by_...

Re: Cancer Alley

#12
I just saw this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT9mrbIxeBE and it sounded like an interesting topic to bring on HN. I didn't know about the "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana, but I figure most countries have their own alleys of death. I live in Italy and Taranto is notorious for this reason. The city was home to one of biggest steel producers in Europe. The local economy revolved around the steel plant, but people from the sorrounding neighbourhoods have suffered from abnormally high rates of cancer and respiratory illnesses for decades. After a trial which shed light on the environmental disaster, the government seized the plant in 2012. Long story short, its fate has been in a limbo since then.

Re: Cancer Alley

#13

I'm confused to why there is also a french name. I get that it was french at one point but it was 200 years ago, and afaik very little people in the area still speak french

[deleted]

Re: Cancer Alley

#14
post #2

[flagged]

linking random wiki articles with 0 context is extremely common and seemingly accepted on HN. Always confused me as well but /shrug.

You're not really expected to provide context when posting to HN. If something's interesting, it's interesting. I think of the Wikipedia articles as implicit "TIL" posts.

Re: Cancer Alley

#17

> Louisiana Chemical Association President Greg Bowser responded to President Biden's remarks on the region, refuting claims that residents of the industrial corridor have a higher risk of developing cancer in multiple articles. I don't doubt his sincerity...but this illustrates how far people are willing to go to keep power. It is sad to think that a person would ignore evidence that their business kills people to p…

“It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it.”

Solving this problem, along with nurturing a more empathetic culture in general, would really move our species forward IMO

Re: Cancer Alley

#19

I just saw this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT9mrbIxeBE and it sounded like an interesting topic to bring on HN. I didn't know about the "Cancer Alley" in Louisiana, but I figure most countries have their own alleys of death. I live in Italy and Taranto is notorious for this reason. The city was home to one of biggest steel producers in Europe. The local economy revolved around the steel plant, but people f…

Although not quite as drastic, same with the IJmuiden region in Noord-Holland (originally Koninklijke Hoogovens, "Royal Furnaces" -- just as royal as Shell) [0]:

> Due to exposure to particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide emitted from the Tata Steel site, Wijk aan Zee residents have a life expectancy that is 2.5 months lower on average

> approximately 4% of the future cases of lung cancer in Wijk aan Zee will be attributable to the current emissions of particulate matter

> around 3% of future [asthma] cases will be associated with the current emissions

And currently, also DuPunt/Chemours in Dordrecht [1]:

> Chemours, which spun off from its legal predecessor Dupont (DD.N), opens new tab in 2015 to regroup the latter's performance chemical business, complied with its permit before July 1984 but that after that it should have better informed the towns surrounding its chemical plant in the city of Dordrecht

And separately, there is an investigation against the local government because then-DuPont was tacitly allowed to exceed the amount of pollution granted by their permit.

[0] https://www.rivm.nl/publicaties/bijdrage-van-tata-steel-nede...

[1] https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/dutch-court-rule...

(edit: found link in English)

Re: Cancer Alley

#20

[flagged]

You mean other than those parishes in Cancer Alley where there are white majorities and the primary source of household income are the chemical plants, you mean?

Because I grew up in St. Charles Parish, which is 71% white, in the shadow of the Monsanto plant that makes the world's Roundup, down the road from a Dow plant, and across the river from Motiva, Shell, and Exxon refineries where you can see them light up the night sky with flares to burn off their excess gases.

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