Earth Day 2018: Making the Connection Between Environmental and Human Health
Trafalgar Square during the Great London Smog of 1952. Photo © TopFoto / The Image Works.
This Sunday is Earth Day, an annual event started by a bipartisan group of citizens and congressional representatives in 1970 to highlight the need for a healthier environment and the importance of legislative protections.
Along the mighty Hudson—beautiful, but still contaminated
Growing up just north of New York City, along one of the most beautiful but contaminated sections of the Hudson River, I’ve seen up close the effects of industrial pollution before environmental protections were put in place. In addition to producing electrical wire, cables, munitions, and other products, the factories that lined my town’s waterfront for much of the 20th century were also responsible for extensively contaminating the surrounding area with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and petroleum hydrocarbons.
For many decades, the environmental damage caused by such industry was accepted as the price of progress. Raw sewage and oil slicks in the waters of the Hudson were not unusual sights, and relatives tell stories of a popular spot along the river, from which swimmers in the 1960s would emerge covered in the dye produced—and dumped—by a nearby riverfront […]