chemicals

In "Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe," New York Times journalist Keith O’Brien uncovers how Lois Gibbs and Luella Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood.

Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny, and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground, and rows of affordable homes. But in the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly sweet smell of chemicals.In "Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe," New York Times journalist Keith O’Brien uncovers how Gibbs and Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood. The school and playground had been built atop an old canal — Love Canal, it was called — that Hooker Chemical, the city’s largest employer, had quietly filled with twenty thousand tons of toxic waste in the 1940s and 1950s. This waste was now leaching to the surface, causing a public health crisis the likes of which America had never seen before and sparking new and specific fears. Luella Kenny believed the chemicals were making her son sick.

A new report finds major household cleaning product makers are withholding ingredient information, putting consumers at a disadvantage.Clean and Healthy…

Research biologist and cancer survivor Sandra Steingraber was inspired to activism by the classic book "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson, becoming one of…

Andrea Barnet’s new book "Visionary Women" tells the story of four visionaries who profoundly shaped the world we live in today. Together, these women,…

In 2005, beekeepers in the United States began observing a mysterious and disturbing phenomenon: once-healthy colonies of bees were suddenly collapsing,…

Over the past decade a new and controversial energy extraction method known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has rocketed to the forefront of U.S.…

In the summer of 1978, residents of Love Canal, a suburban development in Niagara Falls, NY, began protesting against the leaking toxic waste dump in…