Arsenic-Spewing Battery Plant Could Be Giving Neighbors Cancer

A battery recycling plant has to find some way to curb its arsenic emissions after officials found it was putting 12,000 neighbors at an unacceptable risk of cancer, the Los Angeles Times reports. Quemetco Inc. in the City of Industry has 30 days to notify its neighbors of the cancer risks they face. It also has to come up with a six-month plan to cut arsenic emissions. “The steps that Quemetco must take to ensure even lower emissions will benefit public health, particularly for residents living near the facility,” an attorney for the South Coast Air Quality Management District tells the San Gabriel Valley Tribune. Quemetco was actually under the acceptable cancer risk until new state guidelines were implemented last year after the cancer risk from breathing arsenic was found to be three times higher than previously thought. (More cancer risk stories.)