About the Toxic Zones series
The Investigative Reporting Workshop, in partnership with E&E News and NBC News, examines the health of people living in the shadows of U.S. oil refineries.
Pollution, poverty and pandemic collide
In a segregated community outside of an Alabama oil refinery, chronic illness tells a story of racial inequality, poverty and disease as U.S. deaths from COVID-19 surpass 300,000.
Breathing problems
State regulators for more than a decade allowed a New Mexico refinery to delay fixing leaky equipment that was releasing toxic gases, including high levels of the carcinogen benzene.
