Take Back The Earth - The Dumb, Greedy Incompetents Have Trashed it by Robert S. Swiatek - HTML preview

The toxic pest control DDT was taken off the market a few years ago. It just wasn’t safe. Even after being taken off the market, its effects are still with us and will be for years to come. Of course, there are substitutes for it, which may not be much better. Any chemical that you use to spray fruit and vegetables has potential problems. For one thing, you may be spreading poison on something you will be eating. Then, even if your pears and cabbage are safe after application of the chemical, you may be doing harm to the air and soil in your backyard. This may not be a good idea if you have cows, ducks and chickens behind your house or dogs and cats. Last but not least, you may be creating an environment where bugs soon become immune to your pesticides.

You may remember the time when red dye #2 was removed from the stores. I’m sure you can recall many other products that are no longer for sale because they weren’t safe. I recall some instances where an item was rendered not fit for consumption, but it remained on the shelves until it was sold out. At that point, no more of the product would be stocked. That seems very unreasonable to me. Besides the danger to consumers, if the product stayed on the shelf, the company responsible for it was taking a huge risk that there would be a lawsuit by the users.

In years past, paints were lead-based. This may not affect adults, but this substance shouldn’t be used in a house with children. There may have been other toxic ingredients in the paint. While living in my first house, I used paint remover to get down to the bare wood of a window frame. Just opening the can and breathing the fumes should tell you that this liquid may be able to do the job, but it certainly is not safe or environmentally friendly. As bad as that is, what kind of other bad fumes are created when the paint remover gets in contact with the old paint?

Through college I worked at a supermarket and we burned the cardboard containers from the groceries in an incinerator. This is not done anymore because it just isn’t safe. There’s too much junk being thrown into the air. Consider the makeup of a cardboard box or a newspaper for that matter. Burning either of these will create carcinogens just because of the composition of the paper. There’s the bleaching process as well as the ink to be considered. That may not have been the case years ago, as all they were burning was unembellished paper, so it may have been safe to do so. Today, there is very little material that can be safely burned.

Yet burn barrels can be found in many homeowners’ backyards for burning tree branches, leaves and wastepaper. There is a law to try to eliminate these barrels, but the people are fighting it, even though the legislation is in their own best interest. Old habits die hard.

In an earlier chapter I mentioned the environmental hazards of building bombs, but there is also danger to the planet because of the greed and blatant law violations of refineries, chemical companies and paper mills. Safety is compromised inside the building, and the land, air and water outside is in danger. In some cases, following strict restrictions may improve matters. In some instances though, because of the product, the plant that creates it will never be acceptable to the environment.

If you saw the movie The Graduate, you may recall that the future was to be in “plastics.” This was the investment that couldn’t fail. There is an area in Texas and Louisiana called Cancer Alley. It is dominated by big business and the chemical companies who developed polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, a type of plastic. Vinyl chloride is a colorless flammable gas that goes into making PVC. Today, you can see PVC or vinyl everywhere in all kinds of products.

Mossville is a predominately African-American town near Lake Charles, Louisiana with four polyvinyl chloride facilities. Production began in the middle of the twentieth century when various companies began producing plastic. Many of them found that this endeavor was hazardous to the health of the employees. The federal Agency for Toxic Substances has shown that breathing vinyl chloride for long periods of time can result in damage to the liver and nerves and cause liver cancer and immune reactions. The corporations had knowledge of these dangers but failed to inform the workers of them. Instead they developed a plan to cover up this problem and PVC saw no decrease in output.

But the health of some of the laborers was affected. The chemicals involved were so devastating that some of the bones in the hands of those working in the plant actually dissolved. Others suffered brain damage from being on the scene and there were other problems as well. Eventually, these companies were exposed, but not before too many workers had died or suffered severe consequences. I need not tell you that the air, land and water nearby were also devastated.

In Venice, Italy, PVC was produced as well, and workers suffered through many illnesses and died. The widows of the deceased had a lawsuit, but not against the corporation producing vinyl. Rather, the defendants in the case were executives of the company, and the charge was manslaughter. Unfortunately, justice was not served. The plaintiffs lost in their efforts. While this was occurring, the foreign company conspired with its sister companies in the United States to guarantee that PVC was judged by the American people to be a safe product, despite all that had happened indicating just the opposite.

Plastic has one characteristic that was hailed as a breakthrough: its permanence. But that same feature can also lead to many problems, including how to get rid of it. It can sit in a landfill for years and stay unchanged. If you trash it, it may wind up being incinerated. As you can guess, burning this matter is much worse than burning paper. According to a Tufts University study, “Vinyl products tend to smolder long before they burn, releasing toxic fumes in fires.” Companies that collect trash and incinerate it can’t be helping the planet. Dioxin is a byproduct of this burning, and it stays around forever, getting into animals, plants and the food chain. Eventually, it is in our bodies and can affect the reproductive system and immune system, and cause diabetes, skin and liver cancer.

Those in the industry say that everything is being checked and there’s no danger to the planet, but I would like to know where they bought monitoring equipment. PVC is unsafe, as is chlorine, the gas used to produce it. The health of the workers in a plant where it is produced is in danger and the environment outside the plant is compromised, affecting the community. Lastly, PVC cannot be safely recycled.

Much of the information above was depicted in a program on Public Television called “Trade Secrets: A Moyers Report,” broadcast on March 13, 2002. At the end of the presentation a panel of “experts” from both the chemical companies as well as the environment had a chance to respond to the proceedings. The way I saw it, Bill Moyers established his case against the PVC producer. He did his homework and stood up to the chemical industry. The representative of the chemical faction and the lawyer for that cause seemed to be continuing the cover-up that has been taking place since PVC started being produced in the 1950s.

I thought it was interesting that this individual from the chemical industry mentioned that the host was probably alive because of what chemistry had contributed to the quality of his life. Drugs and health advances seemed to have saved many people who were afflicted with various ailments. These same people would probably not have survived with the same problems sixty years ago. That may certainly have been true, but it also is very possible that the illness itself was caused by “better living through chemistry.”

You can get more insight into the vinyl industry by viewing an entertaining but informative movie, “Blue Vinyl.” It was produced for HBO by Judith Helfand and Daniel Gold. By all means visit the corresponding web site, bluevinyl.org.

In the summer of 2003, I had the pleasure of working with and listening to Lois Marie Gibbs speak to a full crowd of people at a fire hall in Niagara Falls. This was a celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Love Canal, and her speech was eloquent and inspiring. She thanked all of us there for our efforts and offered hope that they would not be in vain, even though it might take time. This was a different woman from the one of over a quarter century ago.

Lois was a shy housewife in the summer of 1978. She lived on 101st Street in a modest three bedroom home outside Niagara Falls with her husband Harry and three-yearold daughter Melissa and six-year-old son Michael. Like most of us, our heroine wasn’t thrilled about public speaking. In fact as a teenager when she had to give a book report, she avoided the issue by skipping school. However, this was to change and this woman would soon be transformed. Before going into any further details, it is necessary to go into a short history of the area.

In 1892, William T. Love proposed digging a sevenmile canal to connect the upper and lower Niagara River. The purpose was to create a natural waterfall that would generate electricity for the area. Work began but the country fell into a depression and it was abandoned. In 1920 the land became a municipal and chemical disposal site until 1953. In 1953, Hooker Chemical (a subsidiary of Occidental Petroleum) filled the canal, covered it with dirt and sold it to the Board of Education for one dollar. That amount again was $1. The deed contained a stipulation that Hooker would not be responsible for any physical harm or death due to the buried wastes. I think I smell a rat! Soon after that, homes were built on the site, and in 1955 an elementary school near the corner of the canal was opened. In the later 1950s, residents complained about the black sludge, horrific odors and injury to the children, but all their pleas went unanswered.

The chemical company admits to burying 22,000 tons of chemicals in the canal, but this is all they will admit to. The Army denies burying wastes but residents testified to seeing Army people and trucks on site. In the area, at least twelve known carcinogens had been identified. There were problems well before the 1970s, but it wasn’t until 1978 when changes occurred.

Lois Gibbs read about the dangers of the chemicals that had been dumped into the canal in a Niagara Falls Gazette article by Michael Brown. She soon found that this was not the first piece done on Love Canal. At first she thought little of the problem since her house was not that close to the hazardous waste. But then her son Michael began school and started having seizures and soon developed epilepsy. Lois then realized what the problem was, namely the school was built on a toxic dump.

She tried to get Michael transferred to another school because of her son’s health and the superintendent asked for letters from two doctors, which Mrs. Gibbs provided. Later when she talked to the same person, he implied that he had never received the notes. However, from what he was saying, it soon became evident to Lois that he had them after all. He was lying but still wouldn’t approve of the transfer for Michael. This shy housewife was furious and called the head of the PTA, but she seemed uninterested.

Despite her inexperience, Lois then decided to get some petitions so she left her house and rang a neighbor’s doorbell. But no one answered. She left and headed home and wondered what she was doing, not unlike what many of us would feel under these same circumstances. When she sat down, she realized that the task was a tough one, but she had to do something. She would start out again the next day, resolved not to quit. She started talking to people on the street and people were concerned. They wanted to know more about Love Canal. One of the women she met had been organizing to do something as well, but she didn’t want to deal with Lois, even though the latter was willing to work alongside her.

It wasn’t long before Gibbs was overwhelmed by the noxious smells of the canal. What was worse was that she discovered that the entire community was sick. Her neighbor suffered from severe migraines and had been hospitalized on numerous occasions that year. The woman’s daughter had kidney problems and others had gastrointestinal problems and lung cancer. But it wasn’t the only type of cancer.

In June 1978 the New York State Department of Health held a public meeting. Officials indicated that they wanted to do some health studies. Unfortunately, representatives appeared to be speaking in another language and didn’t calm any of the people gathered there. They either couldn’t or just simply didn’t answer any of the questions, saying that they would look into the matter and that it might take some time. The people were told not to eat vegetables from their gardens. But that only brought up the question of how safe it was to be outside in the yard. That issue was skirted. The people were frustrated and became frightened.

But Lois pressed on, not surrendering. Before long she met some individuals who were with her all the way and soon a coalition was formed. They talked to a lawyer and decided to begin a lawsuit against Hooker Chemical, the City and Board of Education of Niagara Falls and Niagara County. Soon the Health Department released information from their studies. Some of the chemicals found in the canal included chloroform, toluene, tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene and benzene. They gave a list of these for each home with numbers. Unfortunately, the numbers were meaningless and didn’t reassure the people in any way.

There was to be an open meeting on the problems in the neighborhood on August 2, 1978 in Albany. Lois, her husband Harry and their good friend Debbie Cerrillo made the journey by car on the day before. Debbie had suffered through two miscarriages and occasionally experienced heavy bleeding. The rate of miscarriages in the area was fifty percent higher than normal. Politicians and health officials knew about the problems in Love Canal, but nothing was done about it. On the day of the meeting, not much seemed to get accomplished. There was a great deal of frustration for the travelers from upstate, especially when they were told that pregnant women and children under the age of two were to be evacuated from the area. Did that mean it was safe for kids over the age of two and retirees to live in that contaminated community?

There was a break in the meeting and when it resumed, a plan was outlined for remediation. There was a great deal of scientific jargon and stonewalling, but not much forward movement. Finally Dr. David Axelrod, the commissioner of the New York State Department of Health indicated that there would be a public meeting in Niagara Falls the next day. Despite the difficulties, Lois and her group did have some influence on the department. The fact that there would be a gathering in their hometown indicated that, and at least there was some hope.

The crew left Albany and drove back to Niagara Falls, tired and frustrated. They hadn’t had more than a couple hours’ sleep the night before. When they arrived home, they were running on empty and were told that a meeting was taking place that night. It would be a few hours before they could rest and relax.

Lois was brought to the podium to talk, but she was nervous. This was her baptism into public speaking. Nonetheless, she managed, and relayed what had occurred downstate. Perhaps it is better to say that almost nothing happened. The residents were upset, nervous and scared. Lois then brought up the meeting for the following night.

The next evening, officials appeared for the assembly, but Governor Hugh Carey was missing. It was an election year and he was out campaigning. Apparently getting elected was more important than the health issues of a town. The meeting only succeeded in upsetting the people of Love Canal and increasing their frustrations.

A day later another meeting was held, without any health officials. The Love Canal Homeowners Association (LCHA) was formed, with Lois being elected president, Tom Heisner vice president, Karen Schroeder secretary and Debbie Cerrillo treasurer. Four goals were set for the organization: evacuation and relocation of the residents, canal cleanup, boosting property values and sampling of the air, water and soil. Congressman John LaFalce was in attendance and soon became an ally of the group in their cause. He stated that he would try to obtain four million dollars from the federal government for the area.

The next day, August 5th, brought officials from the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration to talk with the town people and to size up the problems. Two days later, the governor finally showed up. There was plenty of television coverage, but not much was said about cleanup and what the government would do for the people. There were heated arguments and finally Governor Carey said he would buy the homes in the first and second ring. Of course, just because a politician says he will do something doesn’t mean it will get accomplished.

Lois and the other LCHA members’ lives were completely changed. They didn’t get much sleep and saw little of their families. Over the next few months they would learn that most of the people in government acted only in their own interests and rarely helped their constituents. Organizations, like the Department of Health, which were supposed to help people in need, accomplished little, made excuses and took forever to get anything done.

Over the next few months, Lois traveled to Albany, Washington, DC and even appeared on the Phil Donahue Show. She got great coverage in the local as well as the national press. She also met people who cared about the problems of the canal, specifically Doctor Beverly Paigen of the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo. The two worked on health studies for the area, even creating maps and plotting different problems by clusters. These charts brought out what was really happening. When this data was presented to the health officials, the latter said these were statistics collected by housewives and therefore unreliable. And yet they had no data themselves, or wouldn’t share it.

Despite all the efforts of the LCHA, not much was accomplished. The Health Department stalled and stonewalled matters and Lois and the group were disgusted. She asked for information, but they wouldn’t supply it. Then when the department finally asked for her data, she refused since they didn’t give her any of theirs. Then she said that it wouldn’t be valid since it came from some housewives. There was gridlock, but on Monday, May 19, 1980 the EPA came to the rescue. Perhaps it’s more appropriate to say that the EPA got rescued.

On that day a doctor and a public relations representative of the EPA arrived at the office of the LCHA. It wasn’t long before they were told that they were hostages of the Love Canal people. There was a crowd outside the office and it grew bigger and things got uglier as the day progressed. It reached the point where Lois said she was holding them in the building to protect them from the mob, which might do them harm. The crisis did bring attention to the issue and eventually Congressman LaFalce promised to call President Jimmy Carter. There was to be a phone call by twelve noon the next day with a resolution. Somehow the hostages were moved away in a police car and they were fine. No charges were pressed against Lois or her group.

At a few minutes after twelve the next day, word came from Washington that 810 families in the community would be evacuated. They could move to any hotel, motel or apartment they chose and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration would pay for the cost. Finally, the people had won.

Eventually, Occidental Petroleum paid $98 million to the state for cleanup, tests, relocation, the houses and more. $129 million settled the federal case. The residents also filed suits, for which most people got about $10,000. Of course, the damage was done to the health and lives of the residents. The Love Canal people would never be the same. You can read more about it in Lois Marie Gibbs’ book, Love Canal: The Story Continues. She moved to Virginia with her children and founded the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. Her web site is chej.org.
14. Klobbered by Katrina

Natural disasters have always been a problem for the planet. With global warming, they’re still around, but with more intensity. Failure to address environmental concerns has had devastating effects on our land, air and water on many levels. One such devastating example fell upon the city of New Orleans on August 29, 2005 when hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast.

A few considerations could have either prevented this disaster, or at least lessened the impact of that storm, such as measures being undertaken to address what fossil fuels have done on the warming of the planet. The possibilities for protection and prevention don’t end there. Technology has given us advanced warning of coming tsunamis, tornadoes and earthquakes. As we progress, this knowledge ahead of time saves lives and resources. A year from now, meteorology will only get better in predicting the weather.

Unfortunately, the City of New Orleans is below sea level and vulnerable to flooding. It has been that way for quite a while and levees were constructed to cover this deficiency. Over time, this engineering feat has done its job in fine fashion. As with all things though, maintenance is required, meaning funds are necessary to see to it that deterioration doesn’t occur. When it does, it has to be fixed to avoid problems. There was enough advance warning – not days before Katrina hit, but years – for action to be taken to guarantee that the levees wouldn’t have a problem. Time and again, money was requested from the government, but it wasn’t forthcoming. Had the cash been available, Katrina may have been nothing more than a tropical storm. Moreover, thousands of dollars would have been spent beforehand, instead of the millions it is taking for cleanup and remediation.

Warnings can be a great thing provided citizens have the resources to heed them. Vast areas in the Delta are inundated with people having the minimum of amenities. They certainly could have walked away from the danger if they had started well in advance of the storm – sometime in July would have sufficed. Of course, they needed to hear about the upcoming hurricane early enough. Mass transit could have been a great ally if it had been capable of handling the crowds. As history has shown, these alternatives failed for a number of reasons. Consequently, innocent people perished while others suffered greatly and lost their homes in the process.

One of the reasons for this is the fact that the City of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana aren’t exactly free of political corruption. You may have heard of Huey Long and Carlos Marcello, one politician and another individual who had a great deal of control without being in the state legislature. Their home state certainly doesn’t lead the United States in doing things on the sly with hands held open for payola. Both the town where I grew up and the city in which I now reside have known a bit of graft – although they can’t be compared to our nation’s capital. Other cities in our nation practice this way of doing business and get away with it. When Katrina hit, there was a conglomeration of incompetence and payoffs at the local, state and federal levels. This was evident well before August 29, 2005, during the crisis and after it. Even today, New Orleans is an area with much work that still needs to be done regarding cleanup – in more ways than one.

There are a few other resources that help to keep New Orleans honest, that is, to keep hurricanes at bay, minimizing catastrophes. Leading the way are the wetlands, which soak up incoming winds and water. They do an unbelievable job and all that is needed is that they be integral. When they get destroyed or neglected, difficulties can and will arise. For too long, these great resources were ignored. Combining this abandonment with a few other already mentioned scenarios didn’t help in the least.

Within the New Orleans swamp sit a large number of cypress trees, which also play as huge a role in controlling what happens to the region as the levees and the wetlands. Over time though, big business felt that removing these majestic wonders of nature would bring more cash because of the value of the wood. That may be true, but the small increase in profits pales when weighed against the costs of cleanup incurred from Katrina. The CEOs never considered that at any time. It gets even worse as some businesses sell the wood for homes, but other corporations simply process it for mulch. It is truly ironic that this product was to be used around the houses that are rebuilt in the future, but at the same time the removal of the cypress trees for this purpose is one of the reasons for much of the damage caused by Katrina.

People exhibit some very risky behavior and then ask for forgiveness, handouts, tax benefits and insurance policies. Our Founding Fathers may have written laws for citizens to act at will – within reason, of course – but there is nothing in writing in those same documents that will guarantee payment of your hospital bills if you climb walls of ice. You’ll have to open your own wallet for that. The same consideration applies to people who have homes constructed on cliffs overlooking the ocean, near raging rivers or in known earthquake regions. You can build anywhere you want, but you’ll have to pay a hefty insurance premium to do so. Then, when disaster strikes and rebuilding is necessary – if you still feel that’s a good idea – don’t be surprised if the cost of the insurance doubles or triples.

Rebuilding the City of New Orleans must take into consideration this same outlook. I feel that it certainly should be restored to what it was. Of course, if in the process, much of the graft and corruption could be eradicated, that would be what’s best for all of us. Perhaps New Orleans should be reconstructed above sea level. Doing so would assure that there would never be a problem with levees again. It would also create numerous jobs, something which is needed right now in that area even if that fine city isn’t elevated. Under any circumstances, changes have to be made to accommodate either choice and the wetlands need to be maintained, especially the cypress trees. If a company wants to sell mulch, they are going to have to obtain it from some place that won’t be affected in any way by the removal of that great natural resource, the cypress.
15. Welcome to my toxic home

I was born in Buffalo and have lived about two thirds of my life in Western New York. From the early 1950s through the late 1960s, I lived at my parents’ home in Cheektowaga. About a mile from this house, where I spent all my teenage years and some of my twenties, sits an area of the town called Bellevue. Within that small location can be found a stone quarry, asphalt business and three landfills. From my observations, these money-grabbing endeavors should not be here, because of the people living close by.

When the quarry is in operation, about a hundred trucks an hour leave with a load of crushed stone. They kick up a great deal of dust and are powered by diesel fuel, which is a known cause of asthma. When blasting occurs to create the deliverable product, nearby houses shake and some even experience destructive effects to the foundation. Electric light bulbs can break and damage occurs to the possessions inside houses. Two byproducts of this operation are silica and hydrogen sulfide, both harmful to human beings.

On February 24, 2004, there was a strong stench of rotten eggs in the neighborhood. The gas turned out to be hydrogen sulfide – a product of the quarry – so members of the Cheektowaga Citizens Coalition (CCC) brought out their specially designed buckets and scientifically captured an air sample in the manner of forensic police. I wasn’t on the scene helping out in the process, as I was more concerned about another issue, which I will spend more time on later.

You can get more information on the “bucket brigade” in Chapter 19. The results from the lab showed 72.7 times the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable rate for that gas. Exposure to low concentrations can cause eye irritation, sore throats, coughs, shortness of breath, and fluid in the lungs. These symptoms usually go away in a few weeks. Long-term, low-level exposure may result in fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory, dizziness, and loss of the sense of smell, which could be more than just temporary. Because it is heavier than air, hydrogen sulfide tends to sink, and children are more likely to be exposed to larger amounts than adults in the same situations. However, as the numbers indicated, this occurrence was not of a low dose.

In the fall of 2002, a black substance was seen oozing out of the ground across the street from the quarry. This was the site of the old Allied Bitumens Asphalt facility. Apparently some of the product had been buried underground some time ago and now was making an appearance where it shouldn’t have. The ooze was found to contain benzene, a known carcinogen. As of this date, I am not sure of what anyone has done about this mess. My guess is that someone is “working” on it.

The landfills are an equal opportunity acceptor, that is, they will take any crap from everyone and anyone. But that is just the problem. Toxins, poisons and radioactive materials have all been dumped in the area. There is plenty of documentation about who dumped what, and reading it would probably make one want to move out of the area. Some people don’t have that option – they developed cancer or some other disease and died. Others may have left Bellevue and carried their illnesses with them.

Of the people who still live in the neighborhood, many are sick and affected by cancers of all types, autoimmune diseases and asthma, to mention a few of the problems. I was a member of the CCC, which tried to take action against these businesses. But, as I pointed out, so many people in the community are sick, it is difficult to accomplish anything. Even if you are in good health, when politicians and members of the health department don’t give you much support, you become tired and discouraged.

My mom has asthma and talks about all the sick people in Cheektowaga. She lived close to Bellevue for over fifty years and moved in October 2004 to an apartment not that far away. Behind her former house sits the home of her hairdresser. She doesn’t get he