Toxic Time Capsule

October 11, 2006 8:30 PM

Interactive Toxic Town from Natl Library Medicine This NLM link shows relatively small everyday sources of toxics around town. Most worry over envirodisasters like Love Canal and Libby Montana but toxics in homes, schools, and small biz can add up to a bigger dose for most of us. The toxic town thread from June 2nd shows the incredible scale of industrial negligance at the nasty sites. Time capsules are neat when you stumble into something gramps left in the attic to remember his hey day. But hazwaste sites are time capsules of a different sort, left behind by industries escaping their environmental liabilities. These sites tell the story of utter disregard for the environment and community as hazwaste was poured down floor drains, dumped into soil and unlined lagoons, or directed into nearby streams. Most of us live far enough away from these chemical bullseyes to not be directly affected. But even more unbelieveably, sometimes the industry was able to pawn off its waste as "clean fill", getting rid of the stuff and spreading it all over town. Prime examples: Grand Junction CO and Stratford CT. But you don't need that for your street to harbor toxic waste - there are thousands of small waste sites in various stages of discovery or cleanup embedded in every state, rural/suburban/urban towns alike. Leaking tanks beneath gas pumps, dry cleaners, small industry, farms, nurseries,and even some homes can be toxics hot spots. Vermont's statewide hazwaste site list broken down by town is an example - it would be smart to find the list for your town.
posted by whatstoxic (12 comments total)

This could have used a [more inside]. I'm also more than a little curious about a first FPP where the required three comments are all that exist, and where the not only does the user's name relate to the story, but their "website" is a shill site for a book on the same topic.
posted by mystyk at 8:56 PM on October 11, 2006

yeah... the name screams "self link," but it's mostly just government sites, a news article, and a typo link about "true hero's". I guess he's just a major player in the Toxic scene.
posted by trinarian at 9:09 PM on October 11, 2006

It's not considered polite to post an article promoting your book, man.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 10:41 PM on October 11, 2006

It's not considered polite to post an article promoting your book

Which link does that?
posted by mathowie at 11:26 PM on October 11, 2006

In case anyone was wondering, this is the thread from June 2nd that whatstoxic is referring to.
posted by tellurian at 11:41 PM on October 11, 2006

The guy wrote a book called What's Toxic. His username is whatstoxic, and this is the first post this user ever made. Surely this post was made for self-promotion purposes.
posted by Mr. Gunn at 11:48 PM on October 11, 2006

Or maybe he's just very involved in the anti-toxic effort, as trinarian says. None of the links go to his site or his book, so there's no self-linking. Surely, we don't intend to prohibit posts by people who've written about the subject of their posts in some other format, do we?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:56 AM on October 12, 2006

Could use some tags, but otherwise I find it to be a useful post. As a Vermont resident I appreciated the Vermont Active Hazardous Sites search link. Thanks.
posted by terrapin at 5:54 AM on October 12, 2006

I was inspired to do that "Toxic Towns" post because I grew up just down the road from one of them (Cheshire, OH). I played little league in the shadows of those smokestacks. Now, news has come out this week that residents of that same part of the state have, courtesy of the fine folks at DuPont, 25 times higher than normal rate of C8, a chemical used to make Teflon, in their systems. The Science Advisory Board for the EPA has determined C8 to be a likely cancer-causing agent in humans.

About 70,000 residents participated in the screening, which ended earlier this year.

The preliminary blood results showed that levels of C8 ranged from 19 ppb in Pomeroy, Ohio, to 132 ppb among residents living in the Lubeck Public Service District in West Virginia. The average level of C8 in the general population is 5 ppb.

Read all about it.
posted by Otis at 7:10 AM on October 12, 2006

Sorry, didn't want to raise the ire of the blog police, just looking for more enviro content in an open forum such as this; surprisingly not that easy to find. Remembered another link for local toxics sources - Neighborhood Pollution Scorecard - just type in your zip code and you'll find out more than you care to know. This week's LA Times article on building materials from China bearing the Trojan Horse known as formaldehyde is an eye opener - apparently the US is one of the few countries careless enough to allow this stuff into our home products.
posted by whatstoxic at 5:52 PM on October 12, 2006

whats, that pollution scorecard link doesn't work.

It's not the blog cops, it's just one guy. Your post is OK.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 2:46 AM on October 13, 2006

I think this is the scorecard site.
posted by Otis at 5:18 AM on October 13, 2006