People living near petrochemical production facilities have higher risk of many types of cancer, birth complications, asthma and respiratory illness, and kidney disease. Children are especially vulnerable to harm from petrochemical pollutants.
Petrochemical production facilities tend to be located in Black communities and poor communities because of decades of racial discrimination in housing and financial services. In majority-Black census tracts, the estimated risk of cancer from toxic air emissions is more than twice the risk found in majority-white tracts. In 2021, the United Nations officially declared petrochemical growth along “Cancer Alley” in the US Gulf Coast a form of environmental racism.
Join the Black Appalachian Coalition- BLAC and Hip Hop Caucus on February 17th at 12:00pm EST to hear from experts and frontline residents about the risks of petrochemicals and their outsized threat to Black communities.
Click here to register: bit.ly/petrochemicals-listening-session