Executive Order 12898

“Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation” By Dan Fagin explores the economics, scientific, political, and personal tragedy of how a chemical giant known as Ciba-Geigy and entrepreneurs failed to properly dispose the industrial waste which eventually contaminated the ground water of a coastal town. The book delves deeply into the history of the dye industry and the lesson learned from the environmental disaster. Fagin takes on complex issues to address the history of industrial processes in both Europe and the United States. He then explores further about the long struggle that parents and public officials took in Toms River, N.J., to scientifically identify the cancer cluster in children and then to determine the best way to handle the discovery.

In the book, Sacrifice Zones, Steve Lerner takes readers through twelve separate stories of communities in the United States that have been unwillingly exposed to high levels of environmental toxicity. In each of these cases, citizens of those communities reacted to and pushed back against being exposed to toxic chemicals, sometimes successfully and sometimes less so. In every case, the people most heavily exposed to these health hazards were minorities and low-income citizens, which, Lerner argues, is why government officials and corporate decision-makers chose knowingly to risk exposing them. This paper will outline Lerner’s book and argue that despite a long history of protests, lawsuits, media attention and nationwide outrage, willing exposure of low-income and minority Americans to toxic chemicals in the pursuit of government and corporate interests is still a major problem today.

People hear about issues and events that happen in America every day. Unfortunately every issue or problem does not receive the necessary media attention. One of the roughest cities in the United States, Detroit, Michigan is being affected by pollution. Detroit Wastewater Treatment Facility is the largest source of discharge into the river with 47 billion gallons of diluted sewage water dump into the Detroit River. 10.1 millions of toxic substance was dumped in the great lakes (Matthews, 2013.para.7). Due to the unstable environment Asthma, Cancer, and birth defects are at its peak. This is because of the factories built in the city next to the lower class neighborhoods. There has been cases where a local neighborhoods has been affected by

In the constitution it states that the Presidents purpose is; to be chief of state, chief executive, chief administrator, chief diplomat, commander in chief, chief legislature, party chief, and chief citizen (The presidents job description). As the chief of legislature, one of the presidents duties is to not only review bills being proposed by congress, and occasionally say they must be revised but to also enact laws affecting the people of the United States immediately, rather than wait for them to move up through the many levels and debates of congress. For this, he can use the power of an executive order, a constitutional way to provide laws that relate to national welfare or the good of the citizens. A few good example of this would be executive order 13767, which moves for additional border security on the United States southern border, and executive

The article from the Huffington Post entitled Welcome to Beautiful Parkersburg, West Virginia: Home to the most brazen, deadly corporate gambits in U.S. history describes the atrocities performed in part by the DuPont chemical plant in West Virginia. The plant was dispersing its hazardous chemicals into the streams and landfills. The hazardous chemical known as C8 was causing extreme health effects to the local residents of the town of Parkersburg. People were getting severely ill and people’s cattle were dying faster than they could be replaced. Yes, these acts were heinous, but the worst of it all was the fact that the company had so much control of the area that they were able to keep doing what they were doing and only face minor penalties if any…sickening. So basically the lesson here is, if you have money and the resources, you can control just about anything. DuPont had both, and that is why they were able to do what they did. C8, or Perfluorooctanoic acid was the chemical that was causing the massive health issues across the state. People were wanting to sue DuPont for the takeoff of C8 being into the water that they were partaking in.

In World War 2 Japanese planes attacked Pearl Harbor causing a distrust with Japanese Americans thinking that they will defend their country and betray the US. Franklin D Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066. Executive Order 9066 was a United States presidential executive order signed and issued during World War II by Franklin D. Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, authorizing the Secretary of War to clear out certain areas as military zones to deport of Japanese Americans. Japanese Americans were rounded up and kicked out their homes to be sent on to trains, they were allowed to keep their valuables and stay together as a family. Camps were placed in desert where the Japanese were exspoded to the scorching heat. When walking into the camp they

President Donald J. Trump has issued an executive order that has banned immigrants from entering the United States of America. Enacting this prohibition would damage America’s reputation as the melting pot that we once were. A group of presidents of leading American colleges and universities wrote a letter urging Donald Trump to rectify the recent executive order. The authors use different strategies such as ethos, emotional appeal, and logos to persuade Donald J. Trump to rectify the executive order banning immigrants from the United States.

Superfund sites are districts in communities that have abandoned hazardous wastes on territories that need immediate removal.In the early 70’s the Comprehensive Environmental Response and Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 encouraged Superfund statues in Washington and these statues handle issues associated with land pollution and abandoned hazardous waste on territories .Superfund acts aid Washington and environmental agencies with removing hazardous waste and it also, allows them to pursue people and corporations that own hazardous waste territories. The principles for the Superfund acts include the quick removal of hazardous materials when environmental regulations demand it, bringing legal disputes against owners of hazardous waste territories, initiating communities and states in waste removal processes and developing extended programs that protect citizens from hazardous waste territories .In the late 70's environmental advocates discovered the contamination at the Superfund site called the Love Canal in Niagara Falls ,NY and they also discovered the surrounding territories contained pollutants and abandoned hazardous waste .The Love Canal is New York states first case of environmental neglect by a corporation and this community and facilities contained hazardous polluted water and dirt that resulted from years of accidental spills ,leaks and irresponsible business recycling

Cleveland and other cities Factories dumped pollutants into the lake and the waterways and fertilizer and pesticides from agricultural runoff without much government oversight. Waste from city

After the defeat with the sole use of the popular epidemiology technique, Lois Gibbs and the Homeowners Association decided to take a different approach when confronting the state. The Association elaborated that the toxic chemicals were “an attack on the nuclear family, as the toxic contamination threatened reproduction and homes” (Hay, “Everyone's Backyard: The Love Canal Chemical Disaster”). They showed that the chemicals were affecting the way the household should run, by hindering the reproduction process, and that the families who have not relocated should, in order to preserve the “[way of life]”. As the past attempts have failed, this effort too failed to get all community members relocated (Hay, “Everyone's Backyard: The Love Canal

Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation by Dan Fagin explores the history of one town’s struggle and analyzed the epidemiology in Toms River, New Jersey. The drama and conflicts between public health, large chemical companies, and actors in this book present real scenarios that occurs in an environmental dilemma. Toxic chemicals, acid-laced wastewater, and private dumping grounds that impacted the community’s health is essential to acknowledge for improvements of waste management and prevention. Indeed, Toms River becomes a lesson for future studies and relevant to the study of environmental

During the late 1700s, many Americans advocated for social justice, economic empowerment, property rights and environmental protection. Their advocacy created a national phenomenon that empowered government and policymakers to execute policies aimed at solving these problems nationwide. The government again took action to enact numerous laws, some of which became the foundation for modern environmental policy and regulations in the United States. “On the national level, the first federal action to respond to public concerns about air quality was the Clean Air Act of 1955” (Longhurst and Lewis 2010, 39).The implementation of some of these newly created environmental laws began to interfere with state regulations, and as such, they often violated citizen’s property rights. Although such policy oftentimes violates citizen rights, it allows government and policymakers to respond to the growing population and market demand. Infringement on property rights did not just take root in the environmental sector in the 1800s. It started as a result of massive construction, inadequate hazardous waste disposal systems, and overpopulation due to urbanization and economic growth in the nineteenth century. It became clear that uncontrolled pollution, including underwater pollutions, led to the spread of environmental disease, thus affecting human health and safety.

By the late 1920’s the canal was being used as a dumpsite by municipal and commercial entities. 82 different chemicals 11 of them known carcinogens had been dumped by the Hooker Chemical Company for over twenty five years. In 1953, the Hooker Chemical Company, then the owners and operators of the property, covered the canal with earth and sold it to the city for one dollar. This was definitely a bad buy for the city of Niagara, unfortunately it would take over 20 years to realize it. During that time more than 100 homes and one elementary school had been built over the landfill, this was definitely not the city that Love had envisioned.

This article explores the outcomes of human error, in which an employee, at San Jose’s wastewater treatment, accidentally released nearly one million gallons of partially treated sewage into the San Francisco Bay. The error occurred when the employee turned the wrong valve, which had been discovered and closed ten minutes later. The incident had not caused any damage or harm to the environment or to the public, since the sewage had been secondarily treated - meaning that 95 percent of “suspended solids” are removed. Samples of water were taken by the outflow of the pipe and revealed that the wastewater had not surpassed health limits proposed by the federal or state government. Environmentalists are tracking the conditions and have not found

A beautiful city, Niagara Falls in the state of New York, ruined by careless decisions of the city of Niagara Falls and The Hooker Chemical Company. Families suffered and died from several of diseases cause by toxic waste that was place underground near homes and schools. A mother, Louis Gibbs who lived near the Love Canal said, “ When I brought this American dream home my son was one and very healthy. Then he started to get very ill and experiences some liver problems, asthma, and then epilepsy. I could not understand, they came one after another, until I read a series written by Mr. Michael Brown, who explained that the Love Canal has toxic waste underneath the neighborhood school and it leaches in resident homes.” She continued on by