EPA lawsuit targets Denka’s neoprene plant

Abstract

The neoprene maker Denka Performance Elastomer is facing a lawsuit from the US government over chloroprene emissions from the company’s plant in LaPlace, Louisiana. In a complaint filed Feb. 28 , the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claims that people living near the facility “are being exposed to an unacceptably high risk of developing certain cancers because of Denka’s chloroprene emissions.” The agency, which has been monitoring the facility since 2016, wants the court to force the company to reduce emissions. Denka argues that the EPA’s risk assessment, conducted in 2010 by the agency’s Integrated Risk Information System, overpredicts the cancer risk from chloroprene by 130 times. The company plans to formally ask the EPA to incorporate a newer model into that assessment. Denka purchased the LaPlace facility from DuPont in late 2014. Since then, Denka says, it has spent over $35 million to upgrade its emission reduction systems, including installing