Love Canal: The Story Continues... [Paperback]

Lois Marie Gibbs (Author), Ralph Nader (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1998

In 1978, Love Canal first hit the headlines as an entire community struggled with the fact that they were living on top of a toxic waste dump. Within weeks, a grassroots movement forced national decision-makers to evacuate the community. Yet, 20 years later, homes at Love Canal have been resold, and some 50,000 similar sites remain. In Love Canal: The Story Continues...., Gibbs gives the blow-by-blow account of how she and her follow residents first became aware of the health problems caused by 20,000 tons of toxic chemicals buried beneath the ground. She continues the saga beyond the 1981 relocation to include the 'containment' of the contamination, the habitability studies that led to the resettlement of abandoned houses, the success of New York State's lawsuit against the company responsible, and her founding of the Citizens Clearinghouse for Hazardous Waste-now the Center For Health, Environment and Justice. As people across North America remember the 20th anniversary of this notorious event, Love Canal: The Story Continues... will be of immense value to grassroots and community activists everywhere. Highly readable, the book will also appeal to a wide cross section, including public officials, policy makers, students and the general reader.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Love Canal: The Story Continues... is a small book with a big story. ...Lois Gibbs is a role model for people struggling for social justice around the world. At Love Canal, with the nation watching, Lois proved that an 'average' person could become empowered enough to change not only her life, but also the lives of others... and the course of environmental policy across the country." -Ralph Nader, excerpt from forward -- Publisher Comments

About the Author

Lois Gibbs, known as the Mother of Superfund, is the Executive Director of the Center For Health, Environment and Justice. She is the recipient of over 20 prestigious awards including the Goldman Environmental Prize for North America (1990), and an Honorary Doctorate at the State University of new York at Cortland. Gibbs has been featured on many television and radio shows includinh Opray, the Bill Moyers Show, 60 Minutes, and the MacNeil-Lehrer Report.

Product Details

• Paperback: 223 pages
• Publisher: New Society Publishers; Anv edition (April 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0865713820
• ISBN-13: 978-0865713826
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,631 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #32 in Books > Science & Math > Environment > Recycling

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Gibbs' book an inspiring & accurate account, July 8, 2003

By 

Gretchen Knapp (Bloomington, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love Canal: The Story Continues... (Paperback)

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.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reminds us that citizens must remain diligent., October 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Love Canal: The Story Continues... (Paperback)

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.