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Higher
Standard of Living
St.
Charles Parish is located along the stretch of
the river called Cancer Alley. Nearly one-fourth of its working population
is employed in the manufacturing field. In 1997, the average wages of those
working in manufacturing was $56,211. St. Charles Parish workers were and
continue to be among the highest paid in the state of Louisiana.
Parishes all
along this stretch of the river have similar pay scales, allowing for a
better standard of living for its residents.
Plant
employee comments:
Although most
of the plant workers interviewed agreed that there is a certain amount of
risk to the surrounding areas and even to their
own health,
all of them said they would not be willing to give up their job to be risk-free.
The overall feeling is that in spite of the risks, chemical plants provide
products that we all use, good-paying jobs, and enough benefits to the communities
to justify their presence.
- "Without
this job, my kids couldn’t go to the schools they do, we couldn’t take
the vacations we do, we wouldn’t live in the house we do…"
- "It's
a great job. I have time off during the week to get things done and I
make decent money. Not too many places that you can work for this kind
of money."
- "I don't
particularly like the work, don’t get me wrong, its not bad - and the
money is worth it. My wife can stay home and raise my kids. It would be
pretty hard to do that at most jobs, financially speaking."
- "Greenpeace
and those kind of people say how bad the plants are...... what about the
lifejackets they use? And the rafts, and the shoes they wear? I don't
see them going without the things we produce, but they're quick to fight
against us.
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Slow
Killer
According
to PBS's "Trade
Secrets: A Moyers Report," former Lake Charles plant worker, Dan
Ross and his wife, Elaine, sued his employer for conspiracy after finding
an exposure report and a handwritten note. These documents revealed that
Ross, who by this time had been diagnosed with a rare form of brain cancer,
had been exposed to dangerous chemicals at rates that exceeded the allowable
government standards.
To make matters
worse, a second handwritten note ordered that this information was not to
be sent on to their headquarters. The company settled; Dan Ross died.
Interviews
from "Trade
Secrets: A Moyers Report":
- Ray Reynolds
- "It was a good paying job as he and his wife, Denise, were raising their
three children." Reynolds is now dying of toxic neuropathy. Dan Ross - "'They'll
take care of me. They're my friends.'" Ross died of a rare form of brain
cancer.
- Everett Pauir
- "…the plant jobs were very attractive…I had a wife and three kids at home
I had to feed, you know? Nobody told you it was a real health hazard, so
you didn't worry about it." Recently Pauir discovered he had been studied,
along with several other workers, to measure mortality rates from early
vinyl chloride exposures. Many of the original group are now dead, "All
of 'em attributed to one type of cancer or another."
- Bernard Skaggs
- "They told us it wasn't dangerous," Skaggs recalls. "They said the only
thing we had to watch about the vinyl chloride was not getting enough of
it to pass out." Skaggs has been diagnosed with a condition called acroosteolysis
- his bones are being destroyed and disappearing.
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