Chem Plant Cites Study It Funded to Ask Regulators to OK Higher Emissions

"Denka Performance Elastomer, the owner of a LaPlace plant that is the only one in America to produce the presumed carcinogen chloroprene, is asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to increase the level of that compound deemed safe for public health.

The company, which is under an agreement with the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to lower its chloroprene emissions into the air, is basing its request on new research on the toxin that the company sponsored.

The new peer-reviewed study was published in the scientific journal Inhalation Toxicology in January and is under review by the EPA."

Sara Sneath reports for Nola.com March 13, 2020.

Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune, 03/17/2020