On average, an estimated 1 in 5,000 people in the Golden Triangle and Cancer Alley are at an incremental lifetime cancer risk. Such prolonged exposure has resulted in unprecedented levels of breast and ovarian cancers, lymphoma, and leukemia among citizens directly and indirectly affiliated with the refineries. They have depended upon petrochemical companies for employment, municipal funding, and education programs in exchange for suffering consistent exposure to carcinogenic chemicals like dioxin, benzene, styrene, and butadiene. Rubber, Texaco, ExxonMobil, Goodrich, and Koch Industries. Residents within these areas have been virtually locked into a parasitic relationship with companies like Gulf Oil, U.S.
Since oil was discovered at Spindletop in 1901, petrochemical plants and refineries have been metastasizing along the Gulf Coast for over one hundred years. However, trade out the radiation for carcinogenic toxins and the nuclear reactors for petrochemical plants, and that is exactly what is happening in the “Golden Triangle” of Texas and along Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” It would be absurd! Especially since nuclear disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima have dramatically elevated fears of radiation exposure amongst the public. Imagine if hundreds of nuclear reactors concentrated in areas encompassing about 700,000–800,000 people in total were to have openly leaked copious amounts of radiation into adjacent neighborhoods for decades –a century even– with no enforced restrictions whatsoever.
Photo credit: Andrew Lichtenstein/Getty Images
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