{"id":28386,"date":"2025-05-23T09:03:23","date_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:03:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28386"},"modified":"2025-05-23T09:23:21","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T09:23:21","slug":"in-cancer-alley-a-battle-over-who-gets-to-measure-air-pollution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/?p=28386","title":{"rendered":"In \u2018Cancer Alley,\u2019 a Battle Over Who Gets to Measure Air Pollution"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Community groups are fighting an unusual Louisiana law that restricts how they use data from air-quality monitors, saying it violates free speech.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

Since 2022, residents of St. James Parish, along the heavily industrialized banks of the Mississippi River known as \u201cCancer Alley,\u201d have used low-cost monitors to measure air pollution.<\/p>\n

But a new law in Louisiana makes it illegal to use that data to push for stricter pollution controls or enforcement.<\/p>\n

The law requires people to instead buy expensive air-pollution monitors that meet strict Environmental Protection Agency standards, if they\u2019re going to use the data to allege violations of clean air laws. People who don\u2019t comply face penalties of thousands of dollars a day.<\/p>\n

Now, community groups are fighting the law, saying in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday against Louisiana that it violates their constitutional right to free speech. The law enables polluting industries \u201cto silence the science,\u201d said Caitlion Hunter, director of research and policy at RISE St. James, which leads the air-monitoring efforts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
\n

The Louisiana law was the first of its kind in the country when it went into effect last year. But Kentucky passed a similar law<\/a> this year and West Virginia\u2019s legislature debated a version in February<\/a>, though it did not pass.<\/p>\n

The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality declined to comment. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.<\/p>\n

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into<\/a>\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe<\/a>\u00a0for all of The Times.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.<\/p>\n

Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Community groups are fighting an unusual Louisiana law that restricts how they use data from air-quality monitors, saying it violates free speech.Since 2022, residents of St. James Parish, along the heavily industrialized banks of the Mississippi River known as \u201cCancer Alley,\u201d have used low-cost monitors to measure air pollution.But a new law in Louisiana makes it illegal to use that data to push for stricter pollution controls or enforcement.The law requires people to instead buy expensive air-pollution monitors that meet strict Environmental Protection Agency standards, if they\u2019re going to use the data to allege violations of clean air laws. People who don\u2019t comply face penalties of thousands of dollars a day.Now, community groups are fighting the law, saying in a federal lawsuit filed Thursday against Louisiana that it violates their constitutional right to free speech. The law enables polluting industries \u201cto silence the science,\u201d said Caitlion Hunter, director of research and policy at RISE St. James, which leads the air-monitoring efforts.The Louisiana law was the first of its kind in the country when it went into effect last year. But Kentucky passed a similar law this year and West Virginia\u2019s legislature debated a version in February, though it did not pass.The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality declined to comment. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill did not respond to requests for comment.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and\u00a0log into\u00a0your Times account, or\u00a0subscribe\u00a0for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber?\u00a0Log in.Want all of The Times?\u00a0Subscribe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28388,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28386"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28389,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28386\/revisions\/28389"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28388"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medexperts.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}