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For years, the residents of Reserve, a town in southern Louisiana next door to a chemical plant, have suffered a cancer risk rate 50 times the national average. Many of those affected are African American residents who trace their lineage here for generations.
My former colleague Jamiles Lartey and I visited Reserve numerous times for the Guardian’s in-depth, year-long reporting project Cancer Town.
Our project has so far published investigative reports, profiles, historical context and reporting from neighboring communities fighting similar battles against big polluters.
We followed activists from Reserve as they marched dozens of miles to protest. We covered two trips that residents made to Japan, where they tried to force meetings with the Japanese petrochemicals company they believe responsible for the dangerous pollution in Reserve.
We also co-sponsored two town hall events in New Orleans and Reserve with the national civil rights leader the Rev William Barber.
This work has not gone unnoticed.
Since our project launched, Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren released an environmental justice platform placing Reserve at the center of her ambitious policy pledge. Louisiana’s state environmental agency announced plans to sue two chemical companies over alleged violations of the Clean Air Act. The governor of Louisiana has commissioned a study of cancer rates in Reserve. The local school board is examining whether to close an elementary school a few hundred feet from the plant.
We were drawn to this story as the residents of Reserve have received little sustained national coverage and almost no political advocacy locally or in Washington. As one resident told us: “We felt like nobody cared. What are we supposed to do, stay here, be sick and die?” Our series is an attempt to draw national and international attention to the plight of those living in Reserve.
Cancer Town is one of the reporting projects we funded with the $1m in reader donations we raised during our end-of-year drive last winter.
Now through January, we hope to raise $1.5m to fund more journalism like this in 2020. With your help, we will continue to fight for the progressive values we hold dear – democracy, civility, truth.
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