| Description |
xii, 255 pages : illustrations, map ; 25 cm |
| Contents |
1. Rashomon -- 2. Love's Canal -- 3. Hooker's Account -- 4. The School Board's Account -- 5. Digression: Growing Concerns about Trace Poisons -- 6. Ring I's Account (May to August 1978) -- 7. Lois Gibbs's Account (June 1978 to May 1980) -- 8. The Health Department's Account -- 9. Michael Brown's Account -- 10. News Coverage -- 11. Who Pays? -- 12. The Scientific Controversy -- 13. Reconciling Accounts -- The Basics of Toxicology |
| Summary |
Love Canal. We hear these words and quickly recoil, remembering a community poisoned by loxic waste. Twenty years after the incident, Allan Mazur reexamines the circumstances that made this upstate New York neighborhood synonymous with ecological catastrophe and triggered federal "Superfund" legislation to clean up the nation's thousands of hazardous waste sites |
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But is there only one true story of Love Canal? Borrowing the multi-viewpoint technique of the classic Japanese film Rashomon, Mazur's book reveals that there are many - often conflicting - versions of what occurred at Love Canal. Hooker Chemical Company, which deposited the toxic wastes, explains why it subsequently donated the dump as the site for a new school. Lois Gibbs, whose son attended the school, tells of organizing the community to fight both the chemical threat and the uncaring state bureaucracy. Then there is the story of David Axelrod, New York's embattled commissioner of health, at odds with the home-owners over their assessment of the hazards and the proper extent of the state's response. We also hear from Michael Brown, the young reporter who developed the story in the Niagara Gazette and eventually brought the problem of toxic waste to national attention |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages [237]-249) and index |
| Subject |
Chemical plants -- Waste disposal -- Environmental aspects -- New York (State) -- Niagara Falls.
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Hazardous waste sites -- New York (State) -- Niagara Falls.
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Hazardous wastes -- Health aspects -- New York (State) -- Niagara Falls.
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| SUBJECT |
Love Canal Chemical Waste Landfill (Niagara Falls, N.Y.) http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85078529
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| LC no. |
97044639 |
| ISBN |
0674748336 hardcover alkaline paper |
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