"A decade after landmark toxic-air monitoring prompted a city crackdown on chemical emissions, a new analysis shows significant improvement in some areas — but still cause for concern in neighborhoods near western Louisville’s Rubbertown industries."

"Levels of butadiene, a chemical that has been linked to cancer in rubber workers, fell more than 85 percent after American Synthetic Rubber began operating new pollution controls in 2006 and have remained down.

And the estimated health risk from long-term exposure to butadiene in western Louisville has dropped — from as many as 500 additional cancer cases among 1 million people in 2001, to 24 in 1 million in 2011.

But the ongoing monitoring and analysis, performed by the University of Louisville’s Kentucky Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development, continues to show concentrations of pollutants as much as 10 times higher near the western Louisville chemical plants than at monitors in eastern Louisville."

James Bruggers reports for the Louisville Courier-Journal April 21, 2012. [2]