undefined | Letters to the Editor: It's past time for RFK Jr. to implement his plan to 'fix the plastics pollution crisis'

Microplastic particles settle on a filter membrane in the laboratory of the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research near Athens, Greece. In a recent piece, staff writer Susanne Rust highlighted the growing “plastics pollution epidemic” and its pervasive impact on the planet, noting that even the laboratories studying microplastics are themselves contaminated. Rust’s article underscored how this contamination complicates research into a problem that already threatens ecosystems worldwide.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was quoted in Rust’s follow‑up as saying, “We cannot regulate what we don’t understand,” a stance that sharply contradicts his own September 2023 ten‑point plan to address the plastics crisis, which called for banning fracking and limiting the expansion of plastic‑production facilities. Advocates argue that the urgency of the issue is evident in the staggering scale of damage—ranging from “Cancer Alley” on the U.S. southern border to the massive contribution of plastic manufacturing to global warming and the trillions of plastic fragments now littering the oceans. Critics also point to the Trump administration’s apparent reluctance to act, noting this inaction appears to serve the deep‑pocketed fossil‑fuel and petrochemical industries whose growth depends on continued plastic production.

Some observers hope that Secretary Kennedy’s “Make American Healthy Again” supporters might persuade him to implement his own ten‑point plan and finally curb the “Goliath‑sized” industries fueling the crisis. The situation has even drawn historical parallels: just as the Roman Empire’s lead‑filled water pipes may have hastened its decline, the ubiquitous presence of microplastics in virtually every living organism could become humanity’s downfall. The consensus among many scientists and activists is that decisive, informed regulation is the only path forward to prevent further environmental and public‑health catastrophes.

Read more: undefined

#rfkjr #marineresearch #fossil-fuelindustries #canceralley

Black “Cancer Alley” Residents Win Key Ruling in Environmental Racism Case

The decision “recognizes what is at stake … [a] public health emergency that originated in slavery,” said an attorney.

https://murica.website/2026/02/black-cancer-alley-residents-win-key-ruling-in-environmental-racism-case/

Black “Cancer Alley” Residents Win Key Ruling in Environmental Racism Case – The USA Potato

Con đường ung thư: Cuộc khủng hoảng ô nhiễm 85 dặm của Louisiana – 85 dặm ven sông Mississippi, nơi cư dân da màu chịu ô nhiễm và ung thư cao gấp 40 lần mức trung bình quốc gia. Cần hành động từ chính phủ và doanh nghiệp. #CancerAlley #MôiTrường #PhânBiệtChủngTộc #Louisiana https://ift.tt/SZ21aFG
Con đường ung thư: Cuộc khủng hoảng ô nhiễm 85 dặm của Louisiana - Thế Giới Trong Tầm Tay

Tại \"Con đường ung thư\" 85 dặm của Louisiana, các cộng đồng da màu đối mặt với ô nhiễm chết người từ hàng trăm nhà máy hóa chất, khơi dậy cuộc chiến chống phân biệt chủng tộc môi trường.

Thế Giới Trong Tầm Tay - Thế giới của bạn, tin tức của bạn, cách bạn muốn

#Wikipedia - #UnitedStates
See also: #Superfund

"Perhaps the best-known sacrifice zone in the United States is '#CancerAlley' in #Louisiana, an 85-mile stretch of land along the #MississippiRiver containing over 200 #petrochemical plants. Serious air and water quality violations have been documented since the 1970s, and elevated #cancer risk has been found. The region's population is disproportionately #Black and #LowIncome.

"Commentators including Chris Hedges, Joe Sacco, Robert Bullard and Stephen Lerner have argued that #corporate business practices contribute to producing #SacrificeZones and that these zones most commonly exist in low-income and minority, usually #AfricanAmerican communities. Sacrifice zones are a central topic for the graphic novel #DaysOfDestructionDaysOfRevolt, written by Hedges and illustrated by Sacco.

"In 2012, Hedges stated that examples of sacrifice zones included #PineRidge, South Dakota and #CamdenNJ. In 2017 a #WestCalumet public housing project in East Chicago, Indiana built at the former site of a lead smelter needed to be demolished and soil replaced to bring the area up to residential standards, displacing 1000 residents. In 2014, Naomi Klein wrote that 'running an economy on energy sources that release poisons as an unavoidable part of their extraction and refining has always required sacrifice zones."

Related link:
The Spread of Sacrifice Zones
By David Swanson, June, 2012
https://cdn.countercurrents.org/swanson090612.htm

#BigOil #BigOilAndGas #SacrificeZones #SEZs #HumanRights #HumanRightsFreeZone #Pollution #EnvironmentalDegradation #EnvironmentalRacism #EconomicSacrificZones #WaterIsLife #Industries #IndustrialUse #PollutionSacrificeZones
#GlobalSacrificeZones #CorporateColonialism

The Spread of Sacrifice Zones By David Swanson

Divider AOC: “I’ve never seen anything like that!” “And frankly men who treat women like that in public, I fear how they treat them in private. WE CAN BE BETTER THAN THIS!” I fear more GOP attacks like #CancerAlley Rep. Higgins on @climateauntie.bsky.social. #BlueEarth #ResistanceEarth #DemVoice1

Big Tech Data Centers Compound Decades of Environmental Racism in the South

The American South has long been a site of both corporate extraction and fierce political resistance.

https://murica.website/2025/09/big-tech-data-centers-compound-decades-of-environmental-racism-in-the-south/

Big Tech Data Centers Compound Decades of Environmental Racism in the South – The USA Potato

Meet the Mother-Daughter Duo Fighting Pollution in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley"

YouTube

“Environmental advocates are questioning the actions of a private university in Louisiana following the resignation of a scientist who researches the health and job disparities in a heavily industrialized part of Louisiana known as ‘Cancer Alley.’”

#EnvironmentalJustice #AcademicFreedomsAtRisk #ClimateCrisis #CancerAlley #Research #LawClinic #TulaneUniversity #GagOrder #Science #EnvironmentalScience #PublicHealth #Jobs #RacialDisparities #HealthDisparities #Economics

https://floodlightnews.org/tulane-scientist-resigns-citing-gag-order-on-environmental-justice-research/

Tulane scientist resigns, citing ‘gag order’ on environmental justice research

Emails show a racial disparities study angered elected Louisiana officials and potential donors to a $600 million university-led redevelopment project

Floodlight

Looks like those #toxins in #Louisiana's #canceralley are also causing mental impairments. This is some first-order dipsh*ttery right cheer. #antiscience #conspiracytheory #crackpot #toxic #nuttery

https://substack.com/@robynelyse/note/p-165540424?utm_source=notes-share-action&r=5fcl6k

Louisiana Is The Latest State To Try To Ban Non-Existent Chemtrails

Kind of love how the people who don't believe in actual climate change believe in this nonsense.

Wonkette

do two wrongs make a right?

Wrong1: re-opening a known cancer causing plant in the middle of #CancerAlley while pulling all safety regs

Wrong2: trumps stupid china tariffs starting at 30% & rising from there

Right: plant losing $100B & closing due to high 'inflation'
https://www.nola.com/news/business/denka-neoprene-louisiana-trump-chloroprene-environment-justice-cancer-alley/article_9328ed8f-dff8-481a-a42a-94c39fc88c4d.html

Denka's controversial Louisiana plant suspends production, says future operations unclear

The plant has been a flashpoint in the debate over environmental justice in an area of Louisiana activists have labeled "Cancer Alley." Gov. Jeff Landry has defended the facility.

NOLA.com