Question
The Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, New York, was contaminated by Hooker Chemical without the knowledge of the local citizens. You may research more via the Internet and the CSU Online Library using search terms such as Love Canal or Love Canal Tragedy. Compose a research paper that includes, but is not limited to, the following:
i. What are the effects of dioxin on human health and to the environment?
ii. What are some past remediation programs, and what is the current status of the Love Canal neighborhood?
iii. What was the health impact to Love Canal residents?
iv. Regulations that were passed and their purpose resulting from Love Canal.
v. Include your perspective of how this situation would be handled in other parts of the world where regulatory enforcement is weaker than in the U.S.
Answer
Introduction
William T. Love, imagined of creating a canal which would connect two levels of Niagara River, separated by the famous Niagara Falls. He planned to include the canal which would produce hydroelectricity to the area of Niagara. However his plan was not successful for the collapse of economy in the year 1892. However, the canal was sold in the year 1920 to the Niagara Fall’s city which started utilizing the land as a dumpsite of the chemical waste and later on the United States as well started burying waste from the experiments out of chemical warfare. As a result, the families and neighborhoods residing there are facing problems till now. Regulations are passed however the civil lawsuits are still pending to bring complete solutions to the existing problem.
Background
The Hooker Chemical and plastics took the use of the site for the use for private purposes in the year 1947. It buried around 22,000 tons of wastes which are toxic in nature for the next five years. Hooker in the year 1952 filed the canal (Henderson, 2016). Now During this period, the population of Niagara was increasing at a first pace, this results for the city to buy land desperately. However, in the following years, the health reports were published, later on it was found that the chemicals which are dumped in the love canal released odors and also responsible for the health degradation of the residents in that area (Henderson, 2016).
Dioxin’s effect on Human health
Dioxins are known as the environmental pollutants and they are of major concern due to their high toxic potentiality. This chemical does show and they leave a harmful effect on the organs and the systems (Bock, 2013). These are the by- products of the industries. However, this can also happen out of volcanic eruptions and fires of the forests.
- Dioxins are chemical compounds that are prevalent as environmental pollutants.
- Dioxins are present all over the world, especially in the animal’s fatty tissue.
- Dioxins are gathered mainly in the food chain which in turn damages the immunity system, which causes cancer and hormonal changes (Bock, 2013).
- Dioxin’s presence in the Love Canal when the trichlorophenols was detected is 200 tons. It was detected in the year 1979.
- According to the estimation, sixty kilograms of dioxin is unearthed from the Love canal (Bock, 2013).
Past redemption programs and the current status of Love Canal
In the year 1978, president of USA, Jimmy Carter declared a federal health emergency, an urgent need to distribute the federal funds and also order the Federal Disaster Assistance Agency to give assistance to the city of Niagara fall to recover the site of Love Canal. Congress passed the Comprehensive environmental response compensation and liability act (CERCLA) also known by the name Superfund act. According to this act, CERCLA imposed tax on the industries of petroleum (Jackson, 2012). In the year 1780, the state government established Love canal area revitalization agency (LCARA) in order to restore the area, according to this program, it wanted to resell three hundred homes which are located far away from the places where the chemicals are dumped (Jackson, 2012; Dunlap, 2014).
The fight which is continuing over the most harmful sites of America is being far from getting over. Approximately forty years after, many people still are waiting for the 18 left lawsuits of civil. The area now looks like a course of golf. A chain like fence is surrounding it. Over there more than 300 schools are demolished. Many residents feared about the oozing of toxic materials from the Love Canal. The families and the residents there still carry the belief that there is still the presence of twenty thousand tons of chemicals located in the centre of that site (Cumulis.epa.gov, 2017).It is still believed that these chemicals might step inside the resident’s room.
Impact of love canal tragedy on health
It has been estimated that residents are suffering from miscarriages, nervous breakdowns, crib births and also urinary tract disorders. The miscarriages in the year 1979 were increased to 300%. This happened due to as the women lived in the wet areas. From the period of 1974 to 1978, more than 50% of the children in the neighborhood of the Love Canal are having birth defects like mental retardation ("Love Canal - Center for Health, Environment & Justice", 2017)
Regulations passed
In the year 1980, President Carter passed two environmental federal emergencies to protect the site. Nearly 950 families were told to leave the place. The contamination of the site leads to passing of the act of CERCLA or the superfund law in order to control the disposal of harmful wastes (Cumulis.epa.gov, 2017). In the year 2004, September, efforts based on revitalization were made on Love Canal Revitalization Agency, where the home comers shifted to the areas of Love Canal site (Cumulis.epa.gov, 2017).
Countries having weak regulations
Countries having weak regulations can take steps by
- The government can take assistance from the other countries in order to make regulations for the degrading environment.
- Awareness within the people is needed to be spread in the form of pamphlets, news papers and magazines.
- Countries like China who have weak environmental regulations are coming up with innovative technologies to clean up the environment (Manderson & Kneller, 2012).
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that, the problems caused by the Hookers is still acting as a major threat to the health problems of the people residing near the site of Love Canal. Hence, proper regulations, programs are still needed to be undertaken to get rid off the existing problems.
References
Bock, K. W. (2013). The human Ah receptor: hints from dioxin toxicities to deregulated target genes and physiological functions. Biological chemistry, 394(6), 729-739.
Cumulis.epa.gov. (2017). Superfund Site Information. Cumulis.epa.gov. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/cursites/csitinfo.cfm?id=0201290
Dunlap, R. E. (2014). American environmentalism: The US environmental movement, 1970-1990. Taylor & Francis.
Henderson, D. R. (2016). Down the memory hole. Regulation, 39(4), 54+. Retrieved from https://go.galegroup.com.libraryresources.columbiasouthern.edu/ps/i.do?p=AONE&sw=w&u=oran95108&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA477086115&asid=2cfb54db2243e0fe4aa25329e48299e3
Jackson, S. E. (2012). Portrait of a slow revolution toward environmental sustainability. Managing human resources for environmental sustainability, 3-20.
Love Canal - Center for Health, Environment & Justice. (2017). Center for Health, Environment & Justice. Retrieved 1 August 2017, from https://chej.org/about-us/story/love-canal/
Manderson, E., & Kneller, R. (2012). Environmental regulations, outward FDI and heterogeneous firms: Are countries used as pollution havens?. Environmental and Resource Economics, 51(3), 317-352.
