“Our Plants are Slowly Dying here, Just Like us”: Coping with Pollution in Turkey’s “Cancer Valley”

Air pollution has been plaguing Dilovası dwellers for more than two decades, and the proximity of large industrial facili- ties with residential areas has been associated with a strong prevalence of cancer among residents of the neighborhood, sometimes dubbed as “Cancer Valley” in Turkish Media. Following original ethnographic research conducted in 2021, this study exposes the history of the neighborhood: why people moved there, how did it become one of the largest indus- trial hubs in Turkey, and what sort of transformation did it undergo over the last decades. Additionally, it examines how Dilovası residents experience and understand their toxic environment and its consequences, and how they relate to politi- cal and social action against pollution. This research, grounded in environmental justice literature, shows that, as both economic opportunities and environmental conditions started to degrade simultaneously in the 1990s, the more modest households of Dilovası were unable to leave and accepted to endure the pollution in exchange for the promise to secure an industrial job for them or their children.