Love Canal :: essays research papers fc

The pick out duct is located salutary Niagara falls in upstate New York. The Canal was constructed as a waterway during the nineteenth century, tho was abandoned shortly afterwards. The Love Canal story is essentially the story of the thousands of families who lived unknowingly amongst an abandoned toxicant chemic waste dump. It wasnt the first time in U.S history where this has happened, nor was it the worst, but it did grab the publics attention.In the 1930s before the Love Canal domain of a function was turned into neighborhoods, the Hooker Chemical Company purchased the area and used it as a burial site for 20,000 metric haemorrhoid of chemicals. In 1953 the Hooker Chemical Company sold the land to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for $1.00. there was a stipulation in the deed, which say that if anyone incurred physical harm or death because of their conceal wastes, they would not be responsible. Shortly after, the land changed hands yet again and this time lega l residence building began directly adjacent to the canal. Families who bought homes here were unaware of the waste buried in their backyards.With all the new homes in the area, an elementary school was exposed near the corner of the canal in 1955. Soon after the opening, students and teachers began sound off of being burnt, nauseous odors, and black sludge (Gibbs 21). It wasnt till tight thirty social classs later that the government finally decided to suss out the complaints.Hooker admits to burying about 21,800 tons of various chemicals in the canal. There are at least twelve known carcinogens in the canal including benzene which is well-known for causing leukemia in people (Gibbs 22). The air, soil, and water tests afford found chemical migration throughout a ten block residential area. The extent of the chemical migration is still unknown.The health effects due to the toxic waste dump are numerous and fatal. There was a high-pitched incidence of miscarriages and birth d efects in children in the 239 families that lived here. The incident rate was so high that in 1978 New York State of Health issued a recommended fugitive relocation of ALL pregnant women and children under two (Gibbs 22). In whitethorn of 1980 President Carter declared a health emergency because of the abnormal amounts of chromosomal breakage in the Love Canal residents. In October of the same year the President signed a bill to evacuate all families for good from Love Canal.