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Community Health Overlay

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Health Burden in Port-Adjacent Communities

Port emissions don't affect all communities equally. The health impact of New Orleans' port operations falls disproportionately on low-income neighborhoods and communities of color located at the terminus of the 85-mile Cancer Alley industrial corridor. New Orleans' overall health indicators are among the worst of any port city in this assessment.


Data Sources

Source Publisher Data Provided Access
CDC PLACES CDC Census-tract-level health estimates: asthma, COPD, heart disease, depression, obesity cdc.gov/places
EJScreen EPA Environmental justice screening indicators by census tract ejscreen.epa.gov
American Community Survey U.S. Census Bureau Demographics, income, poverty, housing by census tract census.gov
Toxics Release Inventory EPA 60+ TRI-reporting facilities in Orleans Parish epa.gov/toxics-release-inventory-tri-program
LA Dept of Health LDH State health statistics, disease surveillance ldh.la.gov
New Orleans Health Department NOHD 2024 Health Disparity Report City of New Orleans

Full Assessment Available

The complete analysis for this section — including census-tract-level health quantification, monetized health damages, environmental justice scoring, and scenario modeling — is available through our research services.

See the full methodology in action: Our Duluth-Superior assessment and New York/New Jersey assessment demonstrate the complete analytical depth available for every port on this site.

Contact us to discuss a site-specific assessment for this port community: research@porthealthwatch.org

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