US drops chloroprene emissions lawsuit against Denka

An air quality monitoring station near a chemical plant

Source: © Emily Kask/AFP via Getty Images

Government says lawsuit stretched legal definitions in pursuit of ‘environmental justice’

The US government has dismissed a lawsuit initiated two years ago when the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sued Denka Performance Elastomer, alleging that the company’s high level of carcinogenic chloroprene emissions from its neoprene rubber manufacturing facility in LaPlace, Louisiana, presented an unacceptable cancer risk to the nearby community.