[Author’s Name]
[Institution’s Name]
Essay on Love Canal
The Love Canal became the first man-made disaster to receive such a designation based on a variety of environmental and health related studies. As a result of grass roots interest and media attention, the Love Canal provided an impetus for dramatic interest in and changes to environmental concerns worldwide.
The modern-day Love Canal saga might be traced back to 1976 when residents adjacent to the canal began to complain of chemical odors from the landfill created by a previous corporate resident, Hooker Chemical. A local reporter began writing about suspected cases of toxic waste-induced illness in the area, and by 1978, Love Canal became a national media event with articles referring to the neighborhood as a "a public health time bomb." By 1979, a scientist with Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, N.Y., claimed to find a high rate of birth defects and miscarriages among Love Canal residents and urged an evacuation. Shortly thereafter, President Carter declared a state of emergency at Love Canal, triggering a temporary relocation of over 2,000 residents.
Was there ever any real health problem at Love Canal? Yes, there was, in the sense that there was an enormous amount of media-induced stress placed on residents who were terrified that they and their children would become ill. But no—there was never any documented evidence that exposure to chemicals at the site caused death or disease . During the summer of 1978, the Love Canal first came to international attention. On August 7, 1978, United States President Jimmy Carter declared a federal emergency at the Love Canal, a former chemical landfill which became a 15-acre neighborhood of the City of Niagara Falls, New York (Rothman, 1989).Near the end of the nineteenth century, after America was once again a unified country, the entrepreneurial pioneers looked towards shipping.....
