Residents of Reserve, Louisiana, met with environmental groups and stakeholders in Denka in their campaign for clean air

Residents of Reserve, Louisiana, have travelled to Tokyo to confront the executives and shareholders of a Japanese company which runs a chemical plant they say is responsible for a spike in cancers and a litany of other diseases in their home town – the town at the highest risk of cancer due to airborne toxicity anywhere in the US, according to the Environment Protection Agency (EPA).

Their trip involved a series of public and private meetings with environmental groups and stakeholders in the chemicals giant Denka, which operates the Pontchartrain Works facility in Reserve. It marks a significant escalation in the residents’ campaign for clean air.

7/10 On June 21, Robert Taylor and Lydia Gerard spoke at press conference at Japan’s Environment Ministry. Watch as Lydia Gerard talks about her husband Walter, who died of kidney cancer almost exactly one year ago after inhaling chloroprene his whole life: #DenkaChloropreneKills pic.twitter.com/KTzpwvIevn