Bhobal Disaster Aftermath, Jaimini, M., N.D.
On the night of December 2nd, 1984, Union Carbide, an American-owned plant in Bhopal, India, began leaking 27 tonnes of the deadly gas methyl isocyanate. This incident, resulting in negligence and a failure by the company to maintain the plant, resulted in the creation of a toxic vapor that killed 25,000 people.
Over 120,000 people still suffer from ailments caused by the accident and the subsequent pollution at the plant site. Dow Chemical, which purchased Urban Carbide in 2001, maintains that they are not liable to make reparations for the ongoing fallout from the Bhopal disaster [1][2][3].
[1] What Happened in Bhopal? (Bhopal Medical Appeal, 2023).
[2] The Long, Dark Shadow of Bhopal: still waiting for justice, four decades on (Passow & Edwards, 2023).
[3] In fresh notice, city court seeks Dow Chemical's presence on October 3 (TNN, 2023).
October 21, 1982: Warren County Protests in Afton, North Carolina.
The Warren County protests were the first major protests in the U.S. highlighting the issue of environmental racism [1].
These protests started with the illegal disposal of oil contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), along North Carolina roadsides in 1978. 31,000 gallons of PCB-tainted oil was sprayed along approximately 240 miles of rural roads in 14 North Carolina counties.
PCB, a chemical used in coolants and lubricants for transformers, is considered toxic and carcinogenic. Exposure to these chemicals can result in a suppressed immune system and may cause cancer, among other negative health impacts [2]. This illegal disposal of PCBs in the summer of 1978 was the largest PCB spill in American history and resulted in concentrations in some areas that were 200 times the EPA criterion for contamination [3].
The population living along the roads contaminated by this toxic oil reported an increase in miscarriages and birth defects; a local physician, Dr. Brenda Armstrong, reported an increase in congenital illness among her patients. Contamination with the exact form of PCB spilled along the roadways was discovered in test results from the breast milk of 12 women living along the contaminated roads [4].
The state needed a place to temporarily store what was confirmed by testing to be contaminated soil; a number of potential sites to host a landfill were considered, but ultimately the state settled on the small African-American community of Afton. Roadside collection resulted in about 40,000 cubic yards of PCB contaminated soil, and the state transported the soil to a 142-acre landfill near Afton in Warren County.
Outraged by this decision which seemed to target a minority community, residents and activists organized widespread protests against the landfill. Over a 6-week period, more than 500 protesters were arrested for acts of civil disobedience trying to block trucks from hauling PCB-contaminated soil to the site.
While the Warren County protests did not stop the landfill from being created, they are considered a pivotal moment that raised awareness of environmental injustices faced by Black and low-income communities. Warren County is one of the many sites now addressed by the EPA's Superfund Redevelopment Program, which helps communities reclaim and reuse formerly contaminated land [5].
[1] The Rise of the Environmental Justice Paradigm: Injustice Framing and the Social Construction of Environmental Discourses (Taylor, D., 2000).
[2] Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) in the Environment: Occupational and Exposure Events, Effects on Human Health and Fertility (Montaro et al., 2022).
[3] Crazy for democracy : women in grassroots movements (Kaplan, 1997).
[4] Real People – Real Stories Afton, NC: Warren County (Exchange Project, 2006).
[5] EPA Superfund Program Overview.
Sometimes called the "Polluters Paradise" [1], Cancer Alley is an 85-mile stretch along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans in Louisiana that has gained notoriety due to its very high concentration of industrial plants and refineries, as well as abnormally high cancer risk for residents.
This part of the United States has recently become the focus of international human rights efforts to mitigate the elevated rates and risks of maternal, reproductive, and newborn health harms, cancer, and respiratory ailments that Black Americans face [2].
[1] How We Found New Chemical Plants Are Being Built in South Louisiana’s Most Polluted Areas (Younes & SHaw, 2019).
[2] The Endless Shame of Louisiana's Cancer Alley (Cohen, S., 2024).
More than one million people in the San Joaquin Valley region have been exposed to unsafe drinking water in recent years from pesticides, arsenic, nitrate, and uranium. And many communities also face multiple environmental health threats [1].
[1] How Water Contamination Is Putting California's San Joaquin Valley at Risk (Meadows, R., 2017).
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan, began in 2014, when the city switched its drinking water supply from Detroit’s system to the Flint River as a cost-saving move. Inadequate treatment and testing of the water resulted in a series of major water quality and health issues for Flint resident - issues that were chronically ignored, overlooked, and discounted by government officials even as complaints mounted that the foul-smelling, discolored, and off-tasting water piped into Flint homes for 18 months was causing skin rashes, hair loss, and itchy skin.
The Michigan Civil Rights Commission, a state-established body, concluded that the poor governmental response to the Flint crisis was a result of systemic racism [1].
[1] Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to Know (NRDC, 2018).