In 1953 Hooker Chemical and Plastics whose name has since been changed to Occidental Chemical sold a parcel of land next to Love Canal to the Niagara Falls School District. What the company didn't tell anyone is that they had dumped more than 21,000 tons or 42 million pounds of chemical waste into the canal, and that the landfill next door was being used as a dump for another 318 million pounds of chemical sludge. A school was built and a neighborhood grew up around the site, blissfully unaware of the nearby poison. In the mid seventies, a few years of higher-than-average rainfall raised the w

http://www.cnn.com/US/9808/07/love.canal/

In 1978, as part of the early response to Love Canal contamination, we interviewed adults living in the area about their health status and recorded names and birth dates of their children. These individuals and their children are included in the Department's Love Canal Registry. The people in the registry and their descendants will be included in the study.

In 1978, the Department of Health learned that Love Canal chemicals had surfaced at the site. The site was located in the midst of a residential neighborhood and was accessible to residents. Canal chemicals were also found in some nearby yards and homes. Most of the families moved away from the Canal area as state and federal funds were provided to buy their homes. Homes on both sides of the two streets circling the canal were demolished to make room for a containment system, except for a few homes at the north end of the landfill area. Most of the homes beyond the first two streets were bought by the government and stayed vacant until containment, clean-up and habitability criteria were set and satisfied. Scientists who reviewed resettlement activities recommended that we determine whether Love Canal residents experienced higher rates of death, cancer or birth problems than is seen in other similar communities, and decide whether other studies besides these are appropriate. The study results will not affect resettlement or habitability activities now underway at the Canal since remedial work has been done to stop people from being exposed to chemicals.

To Governor Hugh L. Carey and Members of the New York State Legislature

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