1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910817562803321

Autore

Brown Phil

Titolo

No Safe Place : Toxic Waste, Leukemia, and Community Action / / Phil Brown, Edwin J. Mikkelsen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, CA : , : University of California Press, , [1997]

©1997

ISBN

1-282-35595-3

9786612355950

0-520-92048-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (289 p.)

Disciplina

363.72875809744

618.92

618.9299419

Soggetti

Hazardous wastes - Environmental aspects - Massachusetts - Woburn

Leukemia - Massachusetts

Leukemia in children - Massachusetts - Woburn

Leukemia in children

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Tables and Maps -- Foreword -- Preface (1997) -- Preface (1990) -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Town in Turmoil: History and Significance of the Woburn Cluster -- 2. The Formation of an Organized Community -- 3. The Sickness Caused by "Corporate America": Effects of the Woburn Cluster -- 4. Taking Control: Popular Epidemiology -- 5. Making It Safe: Securing Future Health -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Toxic waste, contaminated water, cancer clusters-these phrases suggest deception and irresponsibility. But more significantly, they are watchwords for a growing struggle between communities, corporations, and government. In No Safe Place, sociologists, public policy professionals, and activists will learn how residents of Woburn, Massachusetts discovered a childhood leukemia cluster and eventually sued two corporate giants. Their story gives rise to questions important



to any concerned citizen: What kind of government regulatory action can control pollution? Just how effective can the recent upsurge of popular participation in science and technology be? Phil Brown, a medical sociologist, and Edwin Mikkelsen, psychiatric consultant to the plaintiffs, look at the Woburn experience in light of similar cases, such as Love Canal, in order to show that toxic waste contamination reveals fundamental flaws in the corporate, governmental, and scientific spheres. The authors strike a humane, constructive note amidst chilling odds, advocating extensive lay involvement based on the Woburn model of civic action. Finally, they propose a safe policy for toxic wastes and governmental/corporate responsibility. Woburn, the authors predict, will become a code word for environmental struggles.