HJBR Jan/Feb 2020

AIR POLLUTION 34 JAN / FEB 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF BATON ROUGE   Plants in St. John and St. Charles parishes have also caused high air toxicity levels. In other states, simi- lar levels have resulted in plants being shut down. (Illustration 10) ProPublica’s analysis estimates the air toxicity in this entire area is at or higher than the average cancer-causing toxicity level around the Sterigenics facility inWillowbrook, Illinois, which was temporar- ily shut down by the Illinois EPA in early 2019. (Illus- tration 11) Sterigenics announced in September that the plant will close permanently. But according to ProPublica’s analysis, St. John and St. Charles also suffer from another problem: inade- quate protections from the DEQ, which only considers the individual effects of chemicals emitted by plants, instead of considering their combined effects. For example, recently, the DEQ approved a permit that allows Entergy, a utility company, to add anoth- er electric power generating facility to its complex. (Illustration 12) Illustration 10 Illustration 11