Outline

This project, titled ‘Growing Up in Cancer Alley,’ is a story that takes its audience through 85 miles of toxic petrochemical plants and refineries in Louisiana. It focuses on reproductive disorders (for now, specifically on heart defects, pre-maturity, and respiratory diseases) in infants with mothers living in “Cancer Alley”. As Brangham and Quaran (YEAR) describe in their article, Study links petrochemical plants in Louisiana to premature and low-weight births, Cancer Alley is notoriously known for its high cancer rates, due to a large presence of fossil fuels and petrochemical production plants in nearby communities. Unfortunately, the youth in these communities are detrimentally affected, with premature births and low birth weight babies reaching alarmingly high rates. According to a Human Rights Watch report citing forthcoming work from Tulane, in severely polluted census tracts in Louisiana (which include parts of Cancer Alley), preterm births reached as high as 25.3 percent, and low birth weight rates hit 27 percent. These figures are nearly double the state averages and significantly above national norms. In other words: mothers in the most polluted areas are experiencing rates of premature birth and low birth weight that put their babies at far greater risk of respiratory problems, developmental challenges, and long-term health burdens. This data underscores that the impacts of environmental racism begin before a child is even born.

Beyond the numbers, this story underscores a painful reality: the children of Cancer Alley inherit a legacy of illness before they even have the chance to grow. Generations of residents, predominantly Black, low-income, and politically marginalized, have been forced to raise families in the shadow of facilities that emit known carcinogens and reproductive toxins. The burden is not shared equally; it is concentrated in communities that have historically had the least power to resist industrial siting decisions.

Through maps, timelines, and comparative analysis, Growing Up in Cancer Alley visualizes the relationship between petrochemical expansion and adverse infant health outcomes. By layering industrial build-out dates with trends in premature births, low birth weight, and congenital heart defects, the project makes visible what residents have long known: proximity to toxic plants comes at the expense of children’s lives and futures.

This project also seeks to highlight resilience and resistance. Community groups like RISE St. James, Green the Church, and Concerned Citizens of St. John are not only documenting health disparities, but also organizing for policy change, from opposing new petrochemical permits to advocating for stricter EPA enforcement and investment in community health. Their work illustrates that while the story of Cancer Alley is one of harm, it is also one of activism and collective care.

This project asks its audience to confront a central question: What does it mean when a government allows entire generations of children to be born sick in the name of economic growth? By centering the voices of mothers, families, and grassroots leaders, this story reframes Cancer Alley not as an inevitable consequence of industry, but as a preventable crisis born of environmental racism and political neglect.

Project Structure

Introduction: The Setup The story begins by grounding the audience in the history of Cancer Alley, an 85-mile stretch of Louisiana along the Mississippi River where petrochemical facilities and refineries were concentrated. This section introduces how and why these plants were built, the industries’ promises of economic growth, and the gradual shift of these facilities into predominantly Black and low-income communities. The introduction frames Cancer Alley as a clear example of environmental racism, showing that decisions about where to place industry were not neutral, but carried generational consequences.

Interventions and Community Talks The next section turns to the impacts on health, particularly for infants born in Cancer Alley. Using data on premature births, low birth weight, and congenital heart defects, this part reveals the lived cost of environmental exposure. Visualizations will highlight how reproductive health disparities intensified as industry expanded, and compare affected parishes with state and national trends. At the same time, this section highlights early community voices and grassroots efforts that emerged in resistance, documenting how residents began raising awareness, advocating for their children, and connecting their stories to scientific findings.

Policy Engagements and Resistance Building from the community perspective, this section shifts upward in the story arc to moments of policy action. It highlights interventions such as lawsuits, EPA involvement, or state-level debates about regulation and zoning. This section shows that while communities have persistently called for action, government responses have been uneven, some protective measures have been enacted, while others have been delayed or blocked. The arc here demonstrates that despite the seriousness of the health crisis, political and policy solutions have lagged behind community needs.

Solutions and Call to Action The story concludes by returning to the present moment and charting a way forward. It draws on community organizing groups such as RISE St. James and Green the Church to illustrate solutions being fought for on the ground — from halting new permits to demanding stronger environmental protections and investment in public health. This final section calls the audience to action, emphasizing that the future of Cancer Alley’s children is not predetermined. With sustained advocacy, accountability, and policy reform, the cycle of environmental racism can be broken.

Initial sketches

These visualizations show how reproductive disorders among children in Cancer Alley have risen over time (2010–2024), break down specific illnesses like heart defects, low birth weight, and respiratory issues, and use a slope chart to highlight which conditions are increasing or decreasing.

These visualizations use a Difference-in-Differences comparison to illustrate how reproductive disorder rates diverged before and after petrochemical facilities were implemented, alongside a geo-spatial map showing the overlap between low-income/Black neighborhoods and petrochemical plants in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley.

The data

For this project, I’ll be using a mix of federal, state, and nonprofit data to tell the story. Health outcomes like premature births, low birth weight, and congenital disorders will come from CDC WONDER natality and infant health statistics and the Louisiana Department of Health’s vital records. These sources break things down at the parish level, which is important because it lets me track how infant health has shifted over time in the parishes hit hardest by petrochemical development. I’ll also pull in numbers from the March of Dimes Peristats and recent research, including the Human Rights Watch 2024 report that shows just how extreme the problem is — with preterm births as high as 25.3% and low birth weight at 27% in the most polluted areas.

On the environmental side, I’ll use the EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) and EJScreen, which show where facilities are located, how much they’re emitting, and who lives nearby. To layer in demographics, I’ll rely on U.S. Census Bureau (ACS) data to show the racial and income breakdown of the communities most impacted. By putting these sources together, I’ll be able to map out both the timing (how health outcomes change before and after new facilities are built) and the geography (which neighborhoods are carrying the heaviest burdens). The goal is to make the patterns of environmental racism in Cancer Alley clear and visible, not just through numbers but through a story that connects those numbers back to real communities.

Datasets

Name	URL	Description
CDC Wonder Natality and Infant Health	https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D66	state-level data on birth outcomes, including premature births, low birth weight
FracTracker Alliance	https://ft.maps.arcgis.com/apps/dashboards/6a14d723c6f14f2ebaa5d919296e07a5	Provides dashboard of affected areas
Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program - EPA	https://www.epa.gov/ghgreporting/data-sets	GHGRP collects Greenhouse Gas data from large emitting facilities, suppliers of fossil fuels etc

Method and medium

For my final project, I’m going to use a mix of health and environmental data to show how petrochemical facilities in Cancer Alley are impacting babies and mothers. I’ll bring together data from CDC WONDER, the Louisiana Department of Health, March of Dimes, and the EPA (EJScreen and TRI) to track things like premature births, low birth weight, and exposure to emissions over time. I plan on using R or Python to clean and analyze the data, and then building visualizations in Tableau, like timelines, slope charts, difference-in-differences, and maps.

References

Capital B News. (2023). AI data centers, South Carolina Black communities. Capital B News. https://capitalbnews.org/ai-data-centers-south-carolina-black-communities/

National Geographic Society. (n.d.). Yes, the environment can have racist effects, too. National Geographic. https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/yes-environment-can-have-racist-effects-too/

World Population Review. (2023). Native American reservations by state. World Population Review. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/native-american-reservations-by-state

Smith, R. (2021). Examples of environmental racism in the U.S. Robert Smith Blog. https://robertsmith.com/blog/examples-of-environmental-racism/#12-examples-of-environmental-racism-in-the-u.s

Augusta University. (n.d.). Environmental racism. Augusta University Insider. https://insider.augusta.edu/environmental-racism/

National Institutes of Health. (2024). How minority groups are affected by environmental racism. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI). https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10802013/

Clougherty, J. E., & Kubzansky, L. D. (2020). Environmental health perspectives: Environmental racism and health disparities. Environmental Health Perspectives, 128(12). https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/EHP7537

National Library of Medicine. (2024). Cancer increase in Louisiana from nearby communities near power plants. PubMed. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40463720/

PBS NewsHour. (2024, March 20). Study links petrochemical plants in Louisiana to premature and low-weight births. PBS. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/study-links-petrochemical-plants-in-louisiana-to-premature-and-low-weight-births

The Hill. (2024, March 19). Pregnant women in Cancer Alley more likely to give birth prematurely, babies low birth weight: Report. The Hill. https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/4428143-pregnant-women-cancer-alley-more-likely-give-birth-prematurely-babies-low-birth-weight-report/

AI acknowledgements

I used CHATGPT to give me advice on my sketches as well as narrowing my ideas from a draft that I had created to organize my thoughts.

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