The original content of Democracy Now! Headlines appears under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 3.0 License (United States). For more, including their other shows and media, visit www.democracynow.org. October 26, 2022 Activists Call on Biden to Declare Emergency in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Washington, D.C., activists from the group Rise St. James held a funeral procession in memory of those who lost their lives to cancer and other illnesses that have been plaguing residents of St. James Parish, Louisiana which has been dubbed "Cancer Alley." The majority-Black area has been deemed a so-called "sacrifice zone" and counts some 200 petrochemical plants over an 80-mile stretch of the Mississippi river. This is activist and Goldman Prize winner Sharon Lavigne, speaking in front of the White House yesterday. Sharon Lavigne: "Cancer is taking over our lives, in the river parishes, down "cancer alley" and throughout the whole Gulf South. So we're asking President Biden to declare St. James Parish, "cancer alley" - to declare this an emergency. If he will not declare this as an emergency we are going to die. We are already dying." .