Love Canal: The Story Continues...

by Lois Marie Gibbs

Book Overview

The young housewife who organized the residents of the Love Canal neighborhood to publicize their plight and protest to state and federal officials updates the struggle to persuade government... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0865713820
• ISBN13: 9780865713826
• Release Date: January 1998
• Publisher: New Society Publishers
• Length: 223 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Gibbs' book an inspiring & accurate account

As a native Western New Yorker who lived in suburban Buffalo during the Love Canal era, I found Gibbs' account both accurate and inspiring. (I'm also a Ph.D. historian and am a stickler for evidence.) This book demonstrates that even one person can make a difference -- a lesson we need to hear today more than ever. The evidence of Love Canal's danger to residents is overwhelming. The book to which another reviewer refers as counterevidence (The Skeptical Environmentalist) has been widely panned in the scientific and scholarly reviews such as the journal Science as a highly flawed book which used secondary sources out of context. I invite you to visit Love Canal the next time you are in Niagara Falls, and you will see (and smell) for yourself the physical evidence of the chemicals which bloop and seep in the areas covered by a massive clay cap right across from the elementary school -- like some terrible modern-day burial mound. Currently the NY State Dept. of Health is conducting both a massive cancer cluster study and an autoimmune disease study in Western New York in the area codes downwind from Niagara Falls plant sites. The cancer clusters, which in some cases have shown an incidence well above average (60%+), may be linked to a combination of low-level ionizing radiation from a WWII Manhattan Project plant near Niagara Falls, along with decades of pollution. (The studies are ongoing.) A new toxic brownfield where residents are living has been discovered in Buffalo in the last year. In the last six months, retired employees seriously ill with heavy metal contamination have admitted to the illegal dumping of heavy metals and other toxic chemicals into the water source during the 1970s. The fact is that hardworking families scrimped and saved to buy houses in an area that both the developer and the city knew was heavily contaminated by chemical pollutants. Lois Gibbs, a concerned mother and housewife with little education, realized that something was terribly wrong. Illness rates had skyrocketed, especially for childhood cancers. Foul-smelling chemicals pooled in the school playground and residential backyards; children's sneakers which came in contact partly dissolved as a result. Gibbs shared her concerns with her neighbors, and became a self-taught grassroots organizer in the process. She and her neighbors carried out the simple data collecting which the DoH refused to do. Armed with files of evidence, Gibbs lobbied local officials, the city, the state, and even the company for help for her neighborhood -- and she didn't give up until -- finally -- President Carter did the right thing and relocated those families to safety.If you still think an individual can't make a difference in today's world, you need to read this book. It is truly inspiring.

Reminds us that citizens must remain diligent.

Gibbs' book is important to the history of the grassroots environmental movement. It helps us understand where we came from and why it's so important to have programs like Superfund. It also reminds us that citizens must be diligent in their fight against polluting industry and the politicos who share their beds. While she often repeats herself, it's still a quick (and powerful) read.