The Boy Next Door (2017)

[Gualtar Pennington]

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Downtown, the familiar Dallas skyline, famous for night color outlines and flashing celebrations, had a 9 emblazoned across the Omni Hotel in honor of Romo, the quarterback Cowboys fans have loved to blame for ten years of postseason frustration.

Despite an interception here and a butt fumble there, Tony Romo gave Cowboys fans more thrills and high hopes than anyone ever expected. When he won he shared the credit, when he lost he did it with dignity and grace. When his body was crushed by blitzing giants he got up off the turf without complaint.

As famous, wealthy athletes go there is no more typical guy than Romo. I can easily imagine him as my next-door neighbor, pushing a lawnmower Sunday after church and then inviting me in for a burger and a beer to watch the Cowboys game.

Arriving at their new house, Dr. Krishnakanth Acharya (Siddharth) and his wife Lakshmi (Andrea Jeremiah) are excited to learn a new family has moved in next door to them. After meeting Paul D'Cousta (Atul Kulkarni), his wife Lizzy (Bhawana Aneja), the grandfather (Yusuf Hussein), and daughters Jenny (Anisha Angelina Victor) and Sarah (Khushi Hajare), the two families become friends which is only enhanced when Acharya saves Jenny from an accident by falling into a well on their property. In the days after the incident, however, a series of strange incidents and accidents befall those around them which is never fully explained or controlled. Eventually realizing they need professional help, they agree to call upon Pastor Joshua (Prakash Belawadi), a professional exorcist, to deal with the situation when it's revealed that they're trapped in a loop with ruthless supernatural forces beyond their measure.

When the Environmental Protection Agency informed people in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, last July that the local neoprene plant was emitting a chemical that gave them the highest risk of cancer from air pollution in the country, the information was received not just with horror and sadness but also with a certain sense of validation.

A little-known division of the EPA called the Integrated Risk Information System helped quantify exactly how bad chloroprene is. IRIS evaluates the toxicity of chemicals and in 2010 concluded that the colorless chemical that is the building block of neoprene, one of 28 the plant releases into the air, was a likely human carcinogen. The classification was based in part on research showing that the rats and mice exposed to the stuff developed cancers of the thyroid gland, lung, kidney, liver, mammary gland, and fore-stomach. The 2010 report referred to studies showing that chloroprene increased the risk of cancers in people, too. Studies of four different human populations around the world showed that exposure to the chemical increased the risk of liver cancer, in one case by more than 700 percent. Other studies IRIS reviewed showed a link to lung cancer. In one study of Russian shoe factory workers exposed between 1960 and 1976, chloroprene increased rates of leukemia and kidney cancer as well as liver cancer. The study also showed chloroprene elevated the risk of colon cancer and deaths from a combination of all cancers.

While DuPont operated the Pontchartrain site, we protected our workers from chloroprene exposure applying standards that were up to 125 times more stringent than U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) standards. DuPont also took great care to protect the health and safety of community-area residents operating under an air permit issued by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), which established chloroprene emission limits and met the Louisiana Toxic Air Pollutant Ambient Air Standard for chloroprene. We believe there was no community risk associated with chloroprene.

Denka emphasized that its operations are in compliance with its air permits, which is true. When the company purchased the facility in 2015, it came with a permit that allows Denka to emit 403,580 pounds of chloroprene per year, which is more than 100,00 pounds above what it actually emits. But the permit was first issued in 1994, well before the EPA recognized the chemical as a likely human carcinogen.

In November, a monitor by the intersection of Acorn Street and Highway 44, which runs alongside the river, was 765 times higher than the level the EPA calculated would have a 100-in-a-million cancer risk from air pollution. By the clinic, where many residents go for treatment, the level was more than 330 times higher. And on a Saturday in January, the level of the likely carcinogen in the air by the Fifth Ward Elementary School was 370 times above what the EPA described as the upper limit of acceptability. That is more than 37,000 times higher than the level of chloroprene the EPA calculated would bring the risk of cancer down to one in a million.

Whether the pollution is hundreds or thousands of times what it should be, the knowledge that children are being exposed to elevated levels of a likely carcinogen would be enough to spark widespread outrage and immediate action in many places around the United States. But not in this part of Louisiana.

Robert Taylor, 76, stands in the front yard of his home on East 26th Street in Reserve, Louisiana, on Feb. 24, 2017. Taylor is the president of the Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist, a community organizing group.

Many people fear being seen as a threat to the chemical industry, which is one of the biggest local employers. Two hundred and fifty people work at the plant, though few members of the African-American community living right next door have managed to get any of the coveted jobs there. The two I heard of, Bryant Perrilloux and Nathan Duhe, also happened to die premature deaths from cancer. Duhe, who was an operator at the plant for more than two decades, died in his early 60s. And Perrilloux, a distant cousin of the pastor who began doing janitorial work at the plant after school when he was 17, died of stomach cancer when he was just 18.

Under the best of circumstances, the agency designed to protect public health can give communities like the one in St. John the Baptist a shot at vanquishing the pollutants that affect their health. Without it, they might not even have that.

A German air force Tornado and an F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 314th Fighter Squadron fly in formation together during the last joint flying mission at Holloman Air Force Base, Aug. 17, 2017. The GAF has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Maj. Bradford "Emcon" Brizek)

A German air force Tornado aircraft and an F-16 Fighting Falcon perform a final joint flying mission here at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 17, 2017. The German air force has entered its final stage of departure, however they are not expected to complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Stacy Jonsgaard)

A German air force Tornado and an F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 314th Fighter Squadron, fly in formation together during the last joint flying mission here at Holloman Air Force Base, Aug. 17, 2017. The GAF has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Maj. Bradford "Emcon" Brizek)

An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 314th Fighter Squadron flies toward White Sands National Monument as part of the last joint flying mission with a German air force Tornado at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 17, 2017. The German Air Force has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Chase Cannon)

A German air force Tornado aircraft and an F-16 Fighting Falcon perform their last flight together with senior leaders from their respective commands here at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 17, 2017. The German air force has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Chase Cannon)

A German air force Tornado aircraft prepares to land following its last flying mission with an F-16 Fighting Falcon here at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 17, 2017. The German air force has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Chase Cannon)

A German air force crew chief guides a GAF Tornado in with an F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 314th Fighter Squadron during the last joint flying mission together here at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., Aug. 17, 2017. The GAF has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Amanda Junk)

Col. James Keen, 54th Fighter Group commander, coins Maj. Lars Parlow, German air force Tornado pilot following the last joint flying mission here at Holloman Air Force Base, Aug. 17, 2017. The GAF has entered its final stage of departure, however they will not complete their departure from Holloman AFB until mid 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo Tech. Sgt. Amanda Junk)

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