The Love Canal

This paper seeks to investigate the historic and epidemiologic significance of the environmental tragedy that took place at the Love Canal in New York, where a residential community was built on a condemned land. Although the Love Canal community was occupied in the 1950’s, it was not until 1978 when the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) began the process of evacuating residents from the area closest to the Love Canal.10 The paper will address the question of whether or not the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should have evacuated the individuals residing in proximity to the Love Canal. A review of the original case studies and other literature reviews of Federal and state laws related to the events that took place at the Love

This dream began in the 1890s as the vision of entrepreneur William T. Love. Love had an idea to take advantage of the Niagara Falls water by building a canal between the upper and lower Niagara Rivers, in an effort to generate power to fuel the industry and homes of his would-be model city.1 Love was only successful in initiating his dream project but due to the timing of multiple economic factors, including the Great Depression and Nikola Tesla's discovery of cost effective transfer of electricity, the dream had to be abandoned, leaving behind a partially dug ditch.1 The events that occurred after this have created what has now become known as one of the most controversial environmental tragedies in the U.

They then presented this evidence to the Department of Health. At the forefront of this environmental movement was a house wife activist named Lois Gibbs. In her personal memoirs titled, The Love Canal: My Story and Housewife Data, Gibbs, outlined how her efforts to bring about change for the people living in and around the proximity of the Love Canal were repeatedly met with resistance by public health personnel.4 Gibbs continued to champion her informal epidemiological research, and with the help of her fellow Love Canal residents, discovered "hot spots" of elevated disease rates and birth defects.4 A cancer researcher at Rosewell Park Memorial, named Dr. Beverly Paigen, took an interest in Gibbs’ preliminary research findings. Dr. Paigen conducted clinical studies on the health concerns raised by the Love Canal residents. The findings of these studies showed that the rates of birth defects and miscarriages amongst the residents of Love Canal compared to residents outside the Love Canal parameters were higher.10 When she presented her collection of statistical data findings to the Albany Health Department Board members they dismissed it as “housewife data” without evidence to back it