ABSTRACT
Love Canal is the nation's first notorious episode of land pollution. This violated chemical grave haunts the residents of the area, stalks the company that buried the wastes, and tests the mettle of governments charged with protecting their citizens and the environment. Since additional environmental and medical studies, some under dispute, have tracked chemical migration and disease beyond the 1978 evacuation lines. Beyond monitoring the environment for chemicals and estimating risk based on existing toxic effect data, a second and more direct approach is to search for harm directly among the affected populations. The inconclusive yet fear-inducing nature of the health effects puzzle at Love Canal naturally lends itself to claims and counter claims that serve as much the political and legal interests of the parties involved as the clarification of uncertain science. The harsh glare of adverse publicity also has fallen on governmental response to the challenges of Love Canal.
