Page 16 RAIN January 1981 ACCESS - ·---- --- - - H·AZARDOUS WASTES - - Laying Waste: The Poisoning of America by Toxic Chemicals, by Michael Brown, 1980, 351 pp., $11.95 from: Pantheon Books 201 E. '0th St. New York, NY10022 You want to believe you're reading fiction: there is something of the flavor of Camus'· The Plague here, but the setting is pure American suburbia and the events are even more bizarre. Listen as author Michael Brown describes what he-found when he began his investigation of the Love Canal story: I saw.homes where dogs had lost their fur. I saw children with serious birth defects. I saw entire families in inexplicably poor health. When I walked on the Love Canal, I gasped for air as my lungs heaved in fits of wheezing. My eye~ burned. There was a sour taste in my mouth. It seemed inconceivable that industry and government could have allowed this to happen, and yet there it was, an 'exposed cesspool of-chemicals ... Inconceivable, perhaps, but even with the cesspool fully exposed-with people afraid to enter their own homes and fearing for their families' lives-there is the phenomenon of the chemical company spokesman referring to past disposal practices at the canal as ''damn good ... even by today's standards" and calling residents' demands for evacuation "ignorance" and "hysteria." As the story unfolds, the real poison at Love Canal becomes increasingly apparent: a toxic combination of greed, detachment and scientific arrogance_. ' The Canal story is th_e centerpiece of Laying Waste. After staying with it for 80 pages, the reader may be tempted to dismiss _it as tragic but unique, a phenomenon wh(ch could not possibly be duplicated elsewhere. The author counters any such notion by next setting out on a surreal journey across America to sample similar horrors.at some of the 32,000 other known sites where chemicals are stored or buried. It becomes very evident that it can happen here, and that we. are,ortly at the beginning of a long siege which may ~ell claim some of us as casualties. How can disposal practices be improved and how can we defuse the time bombs already in our midst? Brown has a good idea of what needs to happen. He is less clear about how to ma,ke it happen. After presenting case after case of past institutional failure to acknowledge or act upon hazardous waste ' problems, he only leaves us with a list of "shoulds" for future government.and industry reforms. Perhaps more effective than all the_"shoulds" is Brown's own journalistic tenacity and his ability to make us angry. - JF Great·Moments in Corporate Thought Righteous Indignation Department Here are three national envirorimental groups involved with toxics ·issues .which have worked to include labor interests. J M Urban Environment Conference, Inc. 66611th Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20001 This organization has coordinated involvement of local groups with the Superfimd and OSHA legislation. It is currently investigating the suspected chemical dump near Memphis and working with the National Urban League and New Jersey Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (NJCOSH) and others on the groundwaterJssue. Environmentalists for Full Employment (EFFE) . 153616th Street, N.W. WJshington, DC 20036 EFFE has worked extensively with labor groups, especially for safe energy. In spring . they will publish "Jobs arid Environment," a companion to their "Job's and Energy" pamphlet. • Environmental Action Foundation 724 Dupont Circle Building Washington, DC 20036, Sister group of the lobby. Environmental Action, Inc., this organization aims toward local and labor involvement. Their.thrust is educational, through various information ' packets (on right-to-know laws, chemical waste transportation, etc.) and their publication, "Exposure," part of their Waste and Toxic Substances pr~ject. An article by Christopher McLeod for Pacific News Service tells · how plans by Nedlog Technology Group to sh~p one million tons of chemical wastes per year to Sierra Leone fell victim to adverse .publicity in this country and student demonstrations in Sierra Leone. There is a growing trend, as disposal costs in this country increase, for industries to dump wastes in the Third World. About State Department plans to stop this dumping under the Commodity Control List of the Export Administration Act, James Wolf of Nedlog thinks the U.S. ·is being "a little paternalistic in telling the Africans what they can' and can't do." And, he says, "If I was Sierra Leone, I'd be mad as hell." known carcinogens, were bein.g released into the air. And others, toluene and methyl ethyl ketone among them, were also present in - the ~ir an_d a nearby river. He found, and the Maryland State Department of Health confirmed, that the overall death rate for the valley was, at bare minimum, 2.2 times the national average. Notes from Greater Calumny When Dr. Pietro U. Capurro moved into Little Elk Valley near Elkton, Md., he noticed that strong chemical odors of the toxic variety were being released by a solvent recycling plant run by Paul Mraz. Capurro decided to do something about it. He monitored. releases from Galaxy Chemical Company and also monitored the health of valley residents. Among other things, he found 40 cases of acute pancreatitis, thought to be associated with exposure to toxic subs~ces. He found that benzene and carbon tetrachloride, two But it was Galaxy Chemical Company that sued Capurro_:_in a peculiar twist of logic-ac~sing him of purs,uing a veqdetta. Science quotes Galaxy lawyer George W. Constable: "I can't think of any·greater calumny 'than saying someone's killing people." Well yes, as calumnies go.... The Word Accordipg to Dow , After the Michigan Department of Public Health issued an advisory against eating fish downstream from the Dow Chemical Plant on the Tittabawassee River because of high levels of the dioxin TCDD, Dow Chemical announced a "significant breakthrough" in environmental research. Never mind that Dow is the world's largest manufacturer of 2,4,5-:-T, which contains TCDD, the company explained that the presence of dioxin in fish was not due to a leak or release from the factory but from "natural causes" as by-products of combustion. The New Yorker quotes a spokesperson for Dow: "We now think dioxins.have been.with us since the adv:~nt of fire.'' J·M. -- ._
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