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Shanelle Smith Whigham grew up in Lima near a petrochemical plant that made the air smell like rotten eggs.
The Cleveland-based director of the Ohio office of the Trust for Public Land believes this exposure caused her to suffer two bouts of Hodgkin lymphoma in her mid 20s.
“Most communities near petrochemical plants are mostly black or communities of color,’’ said Whigham, who is black. “My parents, like other parents, were redlined into this particular neighborhood.”