Environmental groups sue EPA over toxic air pollutants in Gulf states

WASHINGTON (CN) — Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, claiming the agency’s failure to regulate harmful pollutants that come from rubber and latex factories is causing communities along the Gulf Coast to suffer a slew of adverse health effects. 

Under the Clean Air Act, every eight years the EPA has to review the emission standards for Group I polymers and resins, synthetic substances that make up materials like plastics, latex and rubber. The last time the EPA reviewed and updated many of them was in 2008 — ignoring a 2016 deadline. Some came up for review in 2019. 

What’s more, the agency hasn’t reported to Congress the risks that hazardous air pollutants might have on public health, which is also a requirement under the Clean Air Act. 

“While EPA has failed and continues to fail to act, community members suffer the consequences of exposure to toxic air pollution from polymers and resins facilities,” Thursday’s lawsuit states.

In this case, the public health risks are high and varied, as toxic chemicals like chloroprene and ethylene oxide that emit from these facilities cause cancer, as well as respiratory, neurological, developmental and reproductive harm, and damage to surrounding wildlife, water and ecosystems.  

Facilities like these have caused the nearby Black community of St. John the Baptist Parish to be nicknamed “Cancer Alley,” as the 85-mile stretch of land along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and Louisiana is home to many factories which emit harmful pollutants, and cause the individuals living in the parish to face the highest cancer risk in the entire nation. 

The cancer risk in St. John is over 15 times above EPA’s unacceptable level. 

“Communities shouldn’t have to sue EPA to compel the agency to do its job, but this, especially the health emergency in St. John, has reached the point where suit is needed to ensure EPA fulfills its duty to protect public health,” Deena Tumeh, an EarthJustice attorney who filed the lawsuit on behalf of Concerned Citizens of St. John, the Louisiana Environmental Action Network and the Sierra Club, said in an email. 

The EPA has been the recipient of many lawsuits from Concerned Citizens of St. John, which called on the agency to create an emergency action plan to strengthen regulations for cancer-causing pollutants in May. 

“EPA has long known that St. John residents face unacceptable cancer threats from breathing industrial fumes every day, yet for years EPA has failed to fulfill its basic responsibility to protect public health and fix this shocking problem of toxic air pollution and injustice,” Emma Cheuse, another Earthjustice attorney who filed Thursday’s lawsuit, said in a May press release. 

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