Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S. | Hacker News Reader

Detailed Map of Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution in the U.S.

projects.propublica.org

205 pointsJimmc41443 comments

I used to live near Longview TX, and it was fairly well known that people living near Eastman Chemical got cancer at higher rates. The issue is TX politicians just don't care. Which if you think if it, is really sadistic. To have a big company that is factually poisoning your population, but no one does anything about it.

Almost like they are bribed by Eastman.

One of the things I took away from the "Tom's River" book was that the difference between a cancer cluster that everyone knows exists, and one that doesn't exist at all, may be just one case. It is hard to gauge such things from folk wisdom.

A substantial faction of Texas tout their state as “pro-business” and “anti-regulation.” Half the time it’s just letting the companies do whatever damage they please that other states wouldn’t allow happen to their residents. It’s easy to see why it persists when attempting to tackle it would be hounded by people and politicians making it seem like you’re being anti-business.

It's no surprise a lot of these dark red spots of cancer causing VOCs are in TX. And Longview TX is dark red even for TX.

I'll never really understand how folks are okay with these things, especially the ones near schools.

Nobody would allow it if they had the power. Nobody (individually) has the power, and collective "bargaining" with large corporations via elected officials that don't make it their platform is just hopeless.

Nobody has to even be malicious. There are millions of problems every day, so you can get caught up in the "fix this first" cycles.

Is that the last film roll factory?

I grew up not far from Port Arthur TX. I am not surprised it is listed as a pollution hot spot. When I was there the beaches were always covered in oil and the air was thick with whatever the refineries released at night. I only knew it smelled awful and I later developed asthma. If it wasn’t for the refineries, there would be no jobs and no reason for my parents to have moved there. I mostly fault the bean counters. I know they can operate safely. They are just saving a few pennies.

I just watched Dark Waters on Netflix last night. Really good movie about DuPont and teflon. In the movie, people near the plant suffer disproportionally.

In the movie it's downplayed how much harm actually occurred. C8 poisoning still affects huge amount of the Mid Ohio Valley to this very day, and despite what the map says the area from Marietta to Ravenswood along the river still has a disproportionately high number of non-natural illnesses. As far as I know they were still doing active testing for blood C8 levels in 2008. My family members who worked at the Washington Works plant have had persisting health issues ranging from neurodegenerative diseases to bone marrow collapse that wouldn't show up on the ProPublica map because they aren't strictly cancers.

Order of magnitude how does this compare to city car pollution and CA fires?

Depends if you live in one of these areas, in that case could be worse.

Just a reminder that ProPublica is primarily by donations from individuals[1]. They do run ads and I wish they didn't, but for now at least, they receive more money from donations and I'd like to keep it that way. With any organization that strives to do good it's important to align the funding incentives with the mission. I think ProPublica is the closest investigative journalist organization to doing that.

This map is one of a bunch of information presentation tools[2] which are extremely useful. In particular, I use their Nonprofit Explorer[3] all the time.

[1] https://www.propublica.org/donate/

[2] https://www.propublica.org/newsapps/

[3] https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/

You know what does not show up on this map at all? Airports.

Of the two of these I inspected so far (the Parrish, Florida powerplant[0] and the Holdingford, Minnesota trailer manufacturer[1]) they both seem to be located way out in the boonies with only a low double-digit amount of either residential or farming structures observed around them once I brought up the locations in satellite view. I don't like how they are intentionally obscuring the population density and scale of these structures with the greyscale mapping they're using; on both of the ones I looked at the big scary red blob didn't even reach out of the property of the targeted industries once you match the map scales up.

[0]https://maps.app.goo.gl/1JRTy4vHWirMNNuP8 [1]https://maps.app.goo.gl/NE3etStbsEF419ad7

How did you conclude they were intentionally obscuring population density? How did you conclude population density, for that matter? Is it your opinion that we shouldn't be concerned about industrial polluters giving cancer to people because those people live in low population-density areas or because they report their cancer at the industrial sites where they work?

Having spent the last four-ish years living in "the boonies", I am generally unimpressed by how people from urban areas talk and think about rural areas and the people that live here. City folks don't know what's happening out here, and it's often because they don't care to, and it shows.

I’m not the person you are replying to, but I would guess they are looking at population density to see how many people are affected.

That feels fairly obvious to me, but doesn't negate anything I said.

Parrish was definitely “the boonies” till probably 2021 when all the covid refugees started moving in. Now it’s probably one of the top areas where new master planned communities are sprouting up in west central fl. My wife and are considering building down there in a new one that has just started development.

> My wife and are considering building down there

As luck (and hard work) would have it, Propublica just give you a better idea of where _not_ to build..

Increase the distance safety margin by an arbitrary 1000%, take into account the dominant wind direction, and, fingers crossed, you'll find a safe place. Godspeed.

I am not that worried about it. One article and one power plant that is miles away (and already factored in to our decision) is not going to change my mind. It’s Florida—I am more likely to get melanoma from the sun, attacked by wildlife/sealife, leprosy from an armadillo, or killed in a car accident than anything that plant is going to do to me.

C’est la vie.

That's probably true, yes.

Enjoy Florida, et la belle vie!

I'm surprised that Denver's Elyria-Swansea and Globeville neighborhoods were not highlighted as hotspots. I lived in Denver for many years, and these neighborhoods were commonly known to locals as some of the most polluted zip codes in the US.

'The data in this map covers emissions from 2014 to 2018, and was last updated in August 2023 to update corrected Form R submissions. We are no longer making updates.'

Is there a way to get updates outside of this website?

> Sources: EPA Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators model, EPA Toxics Release Inventory, EPA Integrated Risk Information System, USDA National Agriculture Imagery Program

I think the scary thing is that we can measure these health outcomes and probably connect to a source like a chemical plant but we still don't understand what exactly is causing the cancer.

For example there are more than 10.000 VOCs in the air. Some are harmless but many are not. It's extremely difficult to measure them and categorize them and nearly impossible to do so in real time.

So even though the EPA measures air quality continuously, they probably only cover a fraction of the harmful substances in the air.

Benzene.

https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2022-02/_epaoig_n...

Benzine causes leukemia.

https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/benzene/basics/facts.asp

Which known as a blood cancer, correct?

That's not great that I grew up near a 1 in 50, in Port Arthur Texas.

I'm surprised Brooklyn isn't on here. Insane amounts of pollution in Gowanus and Greenpoint. Locals are aware of a ton of obscure forms of cancer.

Now check a map of air pollution in South Asia for comparison. Maybe it's a reason India does so badly in the Olympics.

Hmmm ... I trust propublica, but I can't seem to look up their number on Signal. Anybody else having that issue?

"General Info and Inquiries · Mailing Address · Email · Phone · Midwest Office. 708-967-5720. Follow"

https://www.propublica.org/contact

Just this very day... Google added... AI, and the signal lights on streets still do not work, and an Android phone still cannot sort links in reverse chronicle order.

I am going on faith that other people will see that this was NOT an advance.

what does that have to do with anything?

I literally don't know anybody else who would read this feature and also has Signal. ProPublica said they added a signal contact number just for this feature -- I couldn't seem to find that number in Signal. I was wondering if it my issue or theirs. I figured reporting it here on the site might be useful. Apparently I was wrong.

He asked a legitimate question I'm regards to a popular news site. I know not whatfore, quothyhe raven nevermore.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com