Brett Peterson (Love Canal)

Hey Y'all! It would be awesome if y'all could read the following article and comment on it with your reaction. In your opinion, are environmental hazards something we should be concerned about on a day to day basis? Why should we care about them? http://www.salemnews.com/local/x478398946/School-shut-down-when-workers-find-asbestos
(This is the elementary school for my hometown, I messaged some of the ladies in my ward who's children were at the school at the time of the asbestos for their opinions)

Karen: It is terrible that such young kids were exposed to asbestos, a known carcinogen! But to answer your question, I think that we should be concerned about them, but not let the fear of potentially coming into contact with a toxin rule our lives. But when we do find that toxins (like the asbestos) are present, we need to get rid of them immediately.

Sariah: I can remember hearing about the asbestos in the school and having a mini-panic attack. At the time, Jackson, Aimie, and Kayden were all attending school there and all I could think about was how the school was going to cause lung cancer in my babies! I immediately took them to their pediatrician who said that it would have to be in high concentrations and exposed to them for 3 or 4 years, and that subsided my worries just a tad. But I think we should be concerned about environmental hazards because they can cause irreversible damage, especially in the bodies of developing children.

Suzanne: I am so glad that they found the asbestos when they did. What if children spent all of their elementary school years in an asbestos filled school? They could have lung cancer by now....so frightening. We should 100%, most definitely be concerned about environmental hazards, especially when they are in such close proximity to the community.

Allison: Of course we should be concerned about environmental hazards! If someone wasn't concerned about these hazards then they might as well say they are not concerned about their health. When we monitor the hazards to the environment, we monitor the potential hazards to our health.

Britain: We had asbestos in our ceiling and found out about it soon after moving in our old house, since then I have been hypersensitive and maybe a little bit paranoid about carcinogens and other environmental hazards. We should definitely use caution and have regular testings around your home for lead, asbestos, etc. Better safe than sorry!

Candice: I feel like this was really a wakeup call to many parents at the school, because this could possibly be one of the hundreds of carcinogens our children are exposed to on a daily basis. I have probably been more aware of potential environmental hazards, but I haven't worried myself sick over it.  I feel like the air in 5:00 traffic is an environmental hazard, I cant even take a deep breath out there without having to cough up a lung. As a nation, we should monitor environmental hazards more closely so they don't reach the toxic levels.

Molly: My husband and I were just talking about this today. We went to atlanta, Ga recently and they were having a "bad air day" and they advised people to stay inside as much as possible. That was scary! I have never heard of such things. But I was grateful that the local government or whoever alerted people to this so they could avoid the air toxins as much as they could. We should worry about the hazards, but we should also try to come up with ways to stop them from even happening in the first place. Create a more sustainable Earth--> less environmental hazards.

Rebecca: The asbestos in the school was a big deal to me because that was my children's school, but it was probably pretty small on a global scale of hazards (like Chernobyl, oil spills...). But nevertheless we need to be more aware of potential hazards and sort of keep an eye out for them because we might be oblivious to something that is slowly killing us. Sorry to be so grim, but you asked for an honest response!

Tammy:I think as a country as a whole we should be more aware of the environmental hazards as most (if not all) of them are man-made. The dioxins in the air from car exhaust and the asbestos in the kid's school are the two that really stand out in my mind. It is scary to know that the air we breathe is filled with toxins and other hazards, I am concerned about it now, but I cant imagine how bad it will be 30 years from now. yikes.

Samantha: I am not too concerned about environmental hazards which is probably a bad thing on my part.  I was really concerned about the asbestos in the school and couldn't believe that I sent my child there to breathe that junk in, but I never really thought of that as an environmental hazard. I feel like being cognizant of the space around you is a good idea and to be aware of hazards so you can do your best to avoid them.

Tasha: Speaking as a person who grew up in a home with asbestos in the ceiling (unknowingly), I think that it is a very very smart idea to mind the environmental hazards around us. Not doing this has caused me some respiratory distresses, as well as for my parents and brother. I am careful not to move next to a telephone signal tower, to make sure my house is free of leaded pant, etc. Being aware of the hazards around you can potentially preserve your health---- I think its important!!




Questions answered by me:
-Environmental tragedies still exist today; what can we do today to mitigate these problems.
 I feel like there are many environmental tragedies existing in today's world. One of the main being the depleting of the ozone and the rise in greenhouse gases. As we burn more gasoline in our cars and in our factories we are emitting toxic dioxins which are very harmful to the human body, as well as our planet. To mitigate these problems we can increase education on    the matter. We need to teach the public that what were are doing now, is harming us and the future generations. Through education, we can teach people to carpool, walk to more places, and use their cars less and therefore emitting less toxins. This is more of a broad environmental tragedy, but is still a tragedy nonetheless. 

-Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years ago?
We should be concerned about the toxins released in Love Canal over 30 years ago because the toxins are still there, they haven't somehow left the planet. They have become part of the soil and the ground water there, and they are impossible to remove. The earth is shifting constantly, and that means the toxins are traveling and spreading to places where they weren't originally. Also, we need to care about the Love Canal tragedy because we do not want history to repeat itself.

-Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?
I actually had no clue. I though with today's sophisticated technology that things like toxic groundwater causing heath problems and birth defects was a thing of the past, but apparently my notions were incorrect. It makes me sad to know that innocent people are suffering and dying because of the selfish action of a few people.