Allan Mazur has taken an interesting approach to laying out the issues at Love Canal: the
Rashomon effect, referring to viewing the same situation from multiple perspectives. In this case the perspectives are the company involved, the school board that built the school, the public health community, and the local citizenry. As might be expected, each has a different view, and some entities seemed more forthcoming with information than others. The author has not only laid out the facts of the case and the perspectives of key players, but has, with virtue of hindsight, clarified, to as great an extent as seems possible, the 'truth' of the situation...There are several natural audiences for this book. For those interested in the history of the environmental movement, this is an excellent background for understanding the earlier days of concern. For those interested in environmental science and medicine, this book will reinforce the understanding of why and how science must be of the highest quality, just as much for environmental issues as for trials of new vaccines or antibiotics. For classes interested in risk communication, the media, or the crassness of the political area, this book has much to recommend it, though the lessons learned may well make one unhappy in their learning.
--Arthur L. Frank (
Journal of the American Medical Association )
Mazur invokes the classic Kurosawa film
Rashomon as an emblem of just how difficult it is to tease the truth out of a tangled human event that pits contending participants, interests and accounts against each other...His analysis of the state and presidential politics that provided the context for the local victory at Love Canal is intelligent and useful...Anyone interested in the politics of the environment will find
A Hazardous Inquiry a useful and challenging read.
--Tom Sandborn (
Vancouver Sun )
Much has been written about Love Canal...A recent addition to this literature is Allan Mazur's compelling book...Mazur gets each of the actors--Hooker Chemical Co., now part of Occidental Chemical Co.; federal, state, and local governments; the various factions of Love Canal residents; and a then local journalist--to tell the story of Love Canal. Each, of course, relates a different tale of events...Mazur's '
Rashomon' method forces the reader to wade through repetitious tales. This repetition...compels the reader to review and to reconsider the events. Mazur's technique forces some clarification of incidents that were misted in chaos when they occurred...Just when you think that the Love Canal saga has been mined out, along comes a book like Mazur's to dispel that thought. His book is a good read--and you'll have to read it to find out where he assigns culpability.
--Lois R. Ember (
Chemical and Engineering News )
Risk disputes are difficult to reconcile because of the diverse and often inconsistent perspectives of the parties involved. Science, looked upon as an arbiter of truth, is often less than helpful. In this excellent book, Allan Mazur presents six accounts of the Love Canal dispute to demonstrate the complex interplay of scientific evidence, political biases, economic interests, and personal anxieties involved. He has contributed significantly to the understanding of policy controversies.
--Dorothy Nelkin, New York University
Mazur's story is interesting and well told. While he does not tilt in the same direction as I do, we get a quite balanced account of this very significant event, and the review of the issues involved is illuminating.
--Charles Perrow, Yale University, author of
Normal AccidentsA revealing and disturbing account of how the Love Canal episode was bungled, with ordinary homeowners getting the short end of the stick! Beautifully written and meticulously documented.
--John D. Graham, Harvard University, coeditor of
Risk vs. Risk: Tradeoffs in Protecting Health and the Environment
