51�Թ�

And the EPA is proposing regulations to reduce emissions of pollutants like chloroprene.

The proposal would also institute new monitoring requirements for ethylene oxide and a host of other chemicals — including chloroprene, benzene, 1,3-butadiene, ethylene dichloride and vinyl chloride, the EPA said.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced the plan in St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana, home to the Denka chemical plant, which makes synthetic rubber and emits chloroprene, listed as a carcinogen in California.

Denka's facility is the only one in the country that makes neoprene, a type of synthetic rubber used for wetsuits and mousepads, a process which releases the carcinogen chloroprene.

Denka Performance Elastomer LLC makes synthetic rubber, emitting the carcinogen chloroprene and other chemicals in such high concentrations that it poses an unacceptable cancer risk, according to the federal complaint.