What Happened?

- The economic depression fell upon America and the plan failed

- Only one 1.6 kilometres of the canal was dug and the plan was abandoned leaving a 1.6-kilometre-long and 24-meter-wide canal behind

- In 1942 the Hooker Chemical and Plastic Company bought the abandoned site.

- The Hooker Company began digging further, in order to create a dump site for industrial wastes such as pesticide residues, processed slurries and waste solvents.

- Approximately 22,000 tonnes of waste were dumped in the pit over an 11-year period.

- It was found that there were 200 different chemical compounds, of which 12 of them were carcinogens.

- In 1979 the site was back filled with loose soil

- The site was originally chosen because the population was sparse at the time

History of the Problem

- Dumping began in the early 1940s but the contamination of homes was not recognised until 1960

- Whilst building the LaSalle Express way, they encountered, oily materials, noxious fumes and corrosive waters.

- During the construction of Read Avenue drums were damaged which released noxious fumes and hazardous chemicals

- A school close to the site reported children were handling phosphorous waste and were burnt from the chemicals

- In 1976 the New York Department of Environmental Conservation conducted several test from site directly adjacent to the site

- In the winter of 1978 New York experienced a record-breaking blizzard, which resulted in an irregular amount a precipitation

- This caused the ‘bathtub effect’

- The canal was contaminated prior to the ‘bathtub effect’

- The toxic chemicals infected directly adjacent homes and the contamination spread

Heath Effects

- On the 2nd of August 1978 the Love Canal was declared a medical state of emergency

- Families with young children under the age of 2 and pregnant women were asked to relocate immediately

- The chemicals that were found in the basements of homes included chloroform, thrichloroethene, chlorobenzene and chlorotoluene.

- Skin diseases, acute Leukaemia, aplastic anaemia, several blood diseases, liver tumors, respiratory and cardiac arrest, paralysis of fingers, visual and hearing defects and death

- The highest quantity of dioxin that was found was 300 parts per billion (which is a measurement scale for example one inch in 16 miles)

- 6026 people were detected as contaminated both dead and living

- The expected rate of death from The Love Canals chemicals was 742 and the observed levels were 725

- there were a significant amount of suicide after the people in the area were told they had been living in an extremely toxic area for many years

- In the summer of 1979 the heat and the humidity of the air combined with the chemical fumes, made many of the residents very sick

- Hotels began filling will people

- The government of New York paid $7,500 each day for these expenses

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Bibliography

Love Canal Disaster 2017, Zen Foundation, United States, accessed 31 March 2017, <http://www.toxipedia.org/display/toxipedia/Love+Canal+Disaster>.

Love Canal Tragedy 2007, Pdf, MSL Academic Endeavours, accessed 31 March 2017, <http://engagedscholarship.csuohio.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=encee_facpub>.

Love Canal 2017, SUNY Geneseo, New York, accessed 31 March 2017, <https://www.geneseo.edu/history/love_canal_history>.

Love Canal :: Start of a Movement 2008, Boston University School of Public Health, Boston, accessed 31 March 2017, <https://www.bu.edu/lovecanal/canal/>.

The Tragedy of the Love Canal 2006, Damn Interesting, accessed 31 March 2017, <https://www.damninteresting.com/the-tragedy-of-the-love-canal/>.