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Sunday, June 1, 2014

Toxic towns: People of Mossville 'are like an experiment'

You will hear list of health program and a list of people who died young from people who live current and former in the Mossville, Louisiana. Herman Singleton Jr., 51 who lost an uncle and an aunt to cancer said that she had cancer and her father died from cancer, and many people who died of cancer in this area. Singleton and many others in SW Louisiana suspect the 14 chemical plants nearby cause cancer and other disease they said that destroys the area. For many years, people who live in the Mossville have protested about their health issue to industry and other state and federal agencies.With new Environmental Protection Agency administrator outspoken about what she is going to environmental justice, and looking forward to growing. Debra Ramirez, 55 who grew up in Mossville and lost her sister of sarcoidosis, an inflammatory disease. Also, she said that she has hopeful know to make changes in their area. How safe is the air you're breathing, and where is it coming from?

The EPA in Mossville held a meeting, they presented a study designed to see if there the community prepared as good site, to reserve for the most polluted places in the Unites States. That will be a help for cleaning up Mossville. Mossville Environmental Action Now, the local environmental group, has asked government and industry to relocate residents who want to leave, offer a free health clinic and lower emissions from the plants. In addition, the local environmental group, Mossville Environmental Action Now asked the government and industry to help find a new place to leave the polluted area and give them a free health clinic and lower emissions from the plants. Dorothy Felix of MEAN said that there are people getting sick, dying because the chemicals which the reason for why people die. If government did not take any action it will destroy Mossville. According to the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory there are thousands of pounds carcinogens such as benzene and vinyl chloride are throwing near Mossville from the facilities each year.

Chemical boom:
Mossville in and around World War II began the industrial boom. Vinyl chloride makers, refineries, a coal-fired energy plant and chemical plants now operate in what was once rural country, rich in agriculture, fishing and hunting. There is no surprising that industry chose Mossville, an organization’s community established by African American in 1970s “ Robert Bullard, author of Dumping in Dixie”. In addition, Bullard said that what happened is zoned becomes very political, and people with power, with lawyers who have elected officials that can fight and made choices for them.With the time, it will make things placed away from them or near where people live. Bullard said that African Americans without the power, they have accepted to live near by industry, landfills and hazardous facilities. Moreover, Bullard said there are more than 79 percent of African Americans live in dangerous facilities that pose health threats.  During the previous eight years, he says, "Environmental justice was non-existent or invisible."

Mossville fears:
Residents in Mossville became more worried promotions from the factors which it affected their health. In 1998 the federal Agency for Toxin Substances and Disease Registry had tested the blood of 28 residents in Mossville, and they found that the levels of dioxin are three times than the normal average. They are also released during vinyl chloride production, at waste incinerators and by wood processing facilities. In 2001 residents were retested for dioxins, in 2006 with similar results the agency determined that there were not a health risk that residents face it.However, there are confusing statistic because the parish covers such a large area, more than 1,000 square miles, and more than 180,000 residents. So, Mossville has been just a small fraction of that, there are about 375 homes nearby the chemical factors. People in the Mossville know that they have high levels of dioxin in their blood, because of that, they allow for them to live there and exposed this according to Subra, recipient of the MacArthur genius grant in 1999 for her environmental work with communities.After the EPA announced its Superfund investigation, Felix says she's hopeful for the first time in years Mossville will be saved. "This is the first time I've had a little hope in EPA," Felix says.


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