Thread by @mayatmiller

1/ Sugar harvesters release smoke into Florida’s air. They tell residents it’s safe. That’s not the full story.

This is the real cost of sugar cane👇 (THREAD)

2/ To harvest sugar, companies set cane crops on fire. Burning cane is contentious – for decades, residents have raised concerns about smoke and ash from burning fields reaching their homes, impacting their health and changing their lives.

But...

3/ Sugar companies say the region’s air quality is safe, and does not violate Clean Air Act standards.

Their evidence? Readouts from an air monitor run by the state that was malfunctioning as far back as eight years ago.

4/ So we did our own air monitoring. @luluramadan, @ashnguuu & I tracked air quality across the Florida Glades for four months.

projects.propublica.org/black-snow/

5/ In that time, our sensors picked up on more spikes in pollution on days when smoke was projected to blow toward instead of away from town.

6/ Air quality experts said the link between sugar cane burning and the spikes in our sensors suggests residents ARE being exposed to additional pollution from cane burning.

Many community members agree.

7/ When our sensors picked up on air pollution, a text bot would send messages to residents asking them to share observations with us.

To get people to sign up for our texts, we had to think outside the box.

8/ We called every sixth person on voter rolls in an effort to get a broad group, we flyered at food banks and even attended a virtual church service to discuss the effort.

51 people signed up.

9/ Here are some things they shared with us:

10/ Sayed Moghani, a math teacher in the area who called the conditions “unbearable” early in our reporting, spoke up after we shared our findings:

“I pray to God this has an impact ... I just want my kids to be able to come to school and breathe.”

11/ Meanwhile, Florida Crystals and U.S. Sugar, the region’s largest sugar producers, defended their cane burning practices when presented with our findings.

They reiterated that the air across the state is among the cleanest in the nation.

12/ Read more from our yearlong examination into why agricultural burning persists in Palm Beach County, where residents have been saying the smoke has harmed their health for decades:

projects.propublica.org/black-snow/

13/ And check out our response to sugar companies’ a criticism of our reporting 👇

propublica.org/article/sugar-…

14/ While you’re here, sign up for our newsletter to get more from our series on sugar cane burning: propublica.org/newsletters/th…