LOVE CANAL REPORT: Andrea Lopez Larios

Environmental/Occupational Health Assignment 

I showed the Love Canal article to my husband and some neighbors. I also showed to them an article about air pollution in Mexico City. Here are the comments on their reaction after reading both articles and the videos.

1: We need to read more the newspapers or watch the news to know what happens outside of our country.

2: I’m from Mexico City and air pollution is really a huge problem.  

3: We need to take care of our natural resources.

4: I think that sometimes we take for granted chemical waste and its effects on the ground

5: Environmental disaster like this could happen again if we do not take care of our environment.

6: This was a very interesting video, and we should be more concern about the environment that surrounds us.  

7: we need to work more in environmental movements in order to avoid disaster like the Love Canal.

8: I it so impressive how some companies not only abuse of our natural resources, but at the same time, it affect everyone.

9: I feel so sad for the people who live there and had to suffer because of it.

10: It is important to be aware of and inquire more about environmental issues.

Why should we care about something that happened over 30 years ago?

I think that it is important to realize that even though the Love Canal tragedy happened long time ago, we are not exempt from it happen again. Sadly but true, we learned from this experiences that we have created an ecological damage in our environment. It not only affected the environment around us, but at the same time, it affected people’s health. I hope that as we learn from this tragedy we may take the precautions need it to avoid another disaster like this. Following this tragedy, there have been more regulations that decrease the risk of possible accidents. Additionally, more laws have been created to avoid companies’ abuse over our natural resources and ground.  However, we must admit that even with the regulations and laws put in place, things like that still happen in our days.

To what degree do environmental tragedies affect you/your family on a day to basis?

Sometimes we think that we will never have to go through an environmental tragedy. However, it may happen in our environment and we have not realized it. For example, I always considered myself very healthy live, and then I moved to Mexico City for three years. Despite of the stringent pollution control measures, a haze hangs over the city most days, and that endanger the health of many people living there, including myself. Surely, this does not compare to the Love Canal tragedy, but it is for sure that environmental tragedies affected all of us. It may affect in different degree, but still is dangerous and we should be aware of it.

Were you aware that environmental tragedies of this magnitude still exist today?

I always thought that disaster like Love Canal could happen today, but I did not know how often they occur. However, after I took Environmental Science last semester, the class helped me to be more aware of the tragedies happening around the world. This happens because with every advance there will be new challenges As I mentioned before, it happens in different degrees, but still happen more often that we realize. I think that this is an issue that needs to be enforces and addressed more extensively in order to make people aware of the environment around them.