Hanford
Hanford is an area located Seattle, Washington. This is an area that receives a lot of rainfall and occasional floods. Hanford has had a rich history dating back to the Native American Indians who had occupied this land thousands of years ago. Prior to the early 1940’s, this area was a farming community.
The objective of this paper is to cover Hanford from a historical perspective so that we can understand why its radioactive contamination has led to health problems for many people in the area. The second part of this paper will cover an ongoing study by the Hanford Thyroid Disease Study, which had just ended its data phase. In addition, Hanford is deemed uninhabitable by humans or animals due to its high concentrations of radioactive materials.
In late 1942 and early 1943 Hanford was selected as the site of the Manhattan Engineer District (Whiteley, 1993). The objective of this project was to test and produce mass quantities of plutonium to produce the Atomic bomb. This site appeared to have little value, according to Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, one of the members of the Manhattan Engineer District (Whiteley, 1993). Little attentions were given to the possible contamination of the Columbia, nor the majestic green forests of the northwest. The project began in March of 1943 and by August of 1945 sufficient plutonium had been produced for the Nagasaki bomb (Whiteley, 1993). The United States government along with the members if the Manhattan Engineer District knew of the radioactive fumes that were emitted into the air, but did little to prevent it. In addition, low-level and high-level radioactive wastes were spilled into the soil and the Columbia River.
Shortly after the Second World War, there was a rapid expansion of the Hanford site as result of the cold war between the United States and the new eastern power, the Soviet Union. The security of the country was the priority of the United States, and the environment suffered irreversible damages. There was an arms race between the two countries and the only focus was to outdo the other. Hence, little thoughts were given to the environment, and little were known about radioactive effects on the environments.
The safety of the people who worked at the Hanford site and those living in surrounding areas were kept in secrecy. However, shortly after World War II, officials spoke out on behalf of the safety and health record of the Hanford facility (Whiteley, 1993).
The engineers in Visit Sunny Chernobyl created a new frontier past the safety zone because they want to test the limits of the reactor. What the scientists didn’t account for is that fact that the reactors already had the potential of a dangerous chain reaction. (Blackwell 6) Consequently, their boundary destroying led to catastrophic consequences and the total annihilation of a land area because of massive radiation. Blackwell thought Chernobyl was so horrific he expressed that no one should visit without a “working understanding of radiation and how it’s measured” (Blackwell 7). These are some horrific consequences that followed from surpassing the
Brown took her time to interview people and look through archives to get the raw scenery of what happened behind closed doors. The third part was “The Plutonium Disasters.” She brought light to how dangerous it was to work and live there, and most of the people in the camp did not know how it can affect their body. Dr. Herbert Parker, the head of the Health Physics Division, “estimated there were eight hundred million flakes of [plutonium], which, if sucked into workers’ lungs or [ingested], could lodge in soft organs and remain in the body of years, a tiny time bomb that Parker feared would produce cancer” (Brown 166). This radioactive element that workers are producing is not just affecting the environment, but is also affecting the workers and their families. Brown has given an immense amount of evidence to explain to the readers how it affected so many of the workers’ health; she gives a vivid picture of how the radioactivity and particles of plutonium lingers in the air. The affects to the workers and their family ranges from cancerous cells to organ deterioration, when a pregnant woman is exposed to it, the health of her baby is also at risk. The fourth and last part of the book is “Dismantling the Plutonium Curtain,” this curtain is the curtain of secrecy. Brown interviewed people who lived in the camps as children and also people who worked there. Many of the people she
On March 25, 1947, the Centralia no. 5 mine in Illinois exploded, claiming 111 lives (Martin, 31, 42). The apparent cause was determined to be inadequate mine maintenance by the operator—coal dust had built up on the floor and walls of the mine, creating conditions conducive to a chain reaction of explosions that would kill most of the workers inside of the mine. However, this was not the root cause of the disaster; it was the outcome of a systemic failure within the state government of Illinois. Despite the continuous warnings of a state mining inspector and a chain of notice letters sent from the Illinois Department of Mines and Minerals notifying the mine operator—the Centralia Coal Company—of the dangerous conditions in its mine, the disaster was not averted. The disaster occurred because both the mine operator and the Department itself dismissed the inspector’s warnings. The real, indispensable culprit of the disaster at Centralia no. 5 was political interference within the Department and the failure to conduct independent oversight over it. These failures are near universally applicable to national security organizations and their less...
...ca is headed. Personally speaking, I found the book to be enlightening as well as bleak, as it paints a picture of a future America where the United States are not so united, and without much hope of proper procedures for a democracy. A divided nation has been apparent for some time, and reading through this book provided some fresh insight as well as reinforcement of my own thoughts. The Big Sort manages to be mostly successful in its objective to inform the reader and perhaps open their eyes, even though it could have likely been shortened to a smaller article. Reflecting on the book and looking at current American affairs, it is fairly obvious that if we as a people do not stop the sorting process and attempt to reintegrate isolated and polarized groups with one another, equal voices and democracy as a national tenet will cease to exist as we know them.
...orld about the interpretation of “Black English”, but flaws in the execution of her publication could prevent her audience from grasping her claim. Her biggest problem is the pathos that oozes from the paper. Whether it is the use of outside comments or hybrid dialogue, the pathos could block the minds of literary scholars. The ethos that Smitherman tries to achieve through quotations and research does not work when the quotes are pathos-charged and are from irrelevant time period. The support to her claim that “Black English” should remain strictly to Black culture doesn’t make a lot of sense. It is illogical to think that the only solution is to stop correcting for the grammar of “Black English” and still keep it only amongst African Americans. Smitherman’s claim for better treatment of “Black English would be perceived far better without the strong use of pathos.
Wood, Linda K. “Men and Mission of the Manhattan Project.” World War II July 1995: 38-45. SIRS Research. SIRS Knowledge Source. Manheim Township H.S. Library, Lancaster, PA. 13 Feb. 2003.
Because of the increase in population, products need to be manufactured in a faster and more efficient way, and with genetically modified foods, the food is larger in size and quicker to harvest. Another advantage of GM foods is that it uses less fertilizer and less water and is more resistant to insects, diseases, frost, and drought. Consumers would not want to eat food that has been treated with pesticides because of possible health hazards and growing GM foods can help eliminate the use of chemical pesticides. Plants that are genetically engineered to resist strong herbicide will help prevent environmental damage by reducing the amount of herbicides needed. This will benefit both the companies and the environment because the production cost is reduced and the danger of agricultural waste run-off is limited. As more land is being used for housing instead of food production, crops need to adapt to locations unsuited
There was a time when women typically maintained the home and raised children while the husbands were the sole bread-winners for the family finances. However, times have changed and so have women’s rights and expectations for divorce, education, an...
As a whole, “twenty-eight percent of children living with a divorced parent live in a household with an income below the poverty line” (32 Shocking). This is not only bad for the household, but for the nation’s economy. Since “seventy-five percent of children with divorced parents live with their mother,” (32 Shocking) the study done by American Sociological Review that “on average, women’s standard of living declines by 27 percent while men’s standard of living increases by 10 percent following divorce” (McDermott 515) is a major concern of divorce. This is not helping the children’s well-being following the divorce.
Divorce should be harder to obtain due to the effect that it has on children the main effect it has on the children is depression. “ In the short term divorce is always troublesome for children Mavis Hetherington videotaped and scrutinized the workings of 1400 divorced families since the early 1970’s. Hetherington pinpoints a crisis period of about two years in the immediate aftermath of separation when the adults, preoccupied with their own lives, typically takes their eye off parenting just when their children are reeling from loss and feeling bewildered” (Hethrington 2). This article states that the short term effect of divorce affects the kid deep because they feel that they lost one forever and in those 1400 many of the kids felt the effect of the divorce. “Wallerstein has told us that divorce abruptly ends kids’ childhood, filling it with loneliness and worry about their parents, and hurting them prematurely and recklessly into adolescence. (Wallerstein 2).” This later affects the kids life because they try to think of happy memories they had but really all they can think about is the parent that they loss due to the divorce. “Contrary to the popular perceptions, the alternative to most divorces is not life in a war zone. Though more than 50 percent of all marriages currently end in divorce, experts tell us that only about 15 percent of all unions involve high levels of conflict. In the vast number of divorces, then, there is no gross strife or violence that could warp a youngster’s childhood. The majority of marital break-ups are driven by a quest for greener grass—and in these cases the children will almost always be worse off. (Zinsmeister 2)” this proves to me that when people get a divorce they most of the time don’t ...
“Most children—five out of six—live with their mothers after a divorce, so the financial effects of divorce on women and children are largely the same. Generally, women suffer more from financial losses than men because of unequal wages for men and women and because women usually have more expenses associated with the physical custody of children after divorce.”[Divorce] Everyone is aware that divorce is a bad thing, morally and religiously speaking. Little do they know, the financial issues that tie into to divorce are breaking families and causing them to live below the poverty level.
The glass ceiling is an invisible barrier preventing women and minorities from advancing into upper management (Bell 67). Despite extensive legislation and the widespread implementation of equal opportunity policies, there is still widespread structural inequality and job segregation in organizations throughout the United States. "The level of the `glass ceiling' varies among organizations and is reflected in different employment patterns, hiring practices, and promotion plans" (Adler 451). The purpose of this paper is to provide background as well as a more in-depth analysis of the glass ceiling phenomenon and apply a human-capitalistic theorist perspective to the issues.
As with most life transitions, divorce can be liberating, depressing, frustrating, or traumatic to any person who experiences it. Perhaps the most painful part on the process of divorce is when the children get involved and when they all get trapped in the situation. These children may suffer significant losses in their lives and unless the situation can be handled in a civil manner, they will become prone to the psychological torment that could affect them for the rest of their lives. The issue of divorce however is becoming more and more intense since for the past ten years the divorce rate in the United States has skyrocketed to a record high of almost fifty- percent. It is also believed that the divorce rate in the United States is the highest in the world and the reason for this are primarily the ever-changing role of the husbands and wives in their household, early marriage, infidelity, extra marital affairs, domestic violence, financial instability and psychological incapacity.
The statistics for divorce in America are alarming. As of 2013, forty-three percent of all marriages end in divorce. (Trudi Strain Trueit) Of that percentage, only twelve percent went through a friendly and easy divorce. (Trudi Strain Trueit) Research shows that more than twenty percent of people have parents who argue excessively prior to their divorce. (Trudi Strain Trueit) Sometimes, the split helps calm these tensions, but statistics show that most couples who separate, will get divorced. Other times, the fighting continues after the divorce, with children getting caught in the middle. Studies show that the divorce rate among couples with children is forty percent lower than couples without children. (Miller)
Did you know that 100 divorces occur each hour ? Approximately 1,250,000 divorces occur each year in the United States (Matthews). Between 1970 and 1977 divorce rates rose 79%. Even though these high rates have declined, a high proportion of marriages still end in divorce (Avins). The divorce rate today in the Untied States is 44%, the rate of divorce for the people who marry for the first time is close to 30% (Avins)(Pattern 1). Divorce has been on a constant rise for the past years in American History, causing a handful of affects on children.