Louisiana stifles community pollution monitoring, critics say

Louisiana stifles community pollution monitoring, critics say

When Cynthia Robertson moved back to Southwest Louisiana nearly a decade ago to care for her aging mother, she worried she’d be putting her health at risk. Her mother had developed high blood pressure and a heart condition called atrial fibrillation — one of many chronic illness cases to emerge near the maze of chemical plants clustered around Lake Charles. Robertson and her mom live in Sulphur, Louisiana, a city of 22,000 due west of Lake Charl…