Are there increased respiratory issues and cancer rates in the Glades communities?

No. Some of these claims cite the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool, but the use of this data is misleading. For example, this mapping tool includes “environmental justice” data that is indexed and not specific to the actual site or people in locations. The EPA cautions about this, noting “it is important to remember that the National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) provides broad estimates of health risks over geographic areas of the country, not definitive risks to specific individuals or locations.” (Source: https://www.epa.gov/ejscreen).

Further, a 2013 Florida Department of Health study on the “Burden of Asthma” in Florida shows that asthma is less prevalent in sugar cane areas than the Florida average (Source: http://www.floridahealth.gov/diseases-and-conditions/asthma/_documents/asthma-burden2013.pdf)