Mass. high school to undergo testing after several female teachers diagnosed with breast cancer

https://www.boston.com/news/local-news/2026/06/03/mass-high-school-to-undergo-testing-after-several-female-teachers-diagnosed-with-breast-cancer/Open link View original on lemmy.nz

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tal

lemmy.today

“It is, of course, possible that these multiple cases are not connected to one another,” they said, “but out of abundance of caution, we are looking into any environmental factors at the school that may be a factor in their diagnoses.”

Although the high school was constructed in 2012, the evaluation will include research into any previous uses of the site.

That sort of thing does seem to be a good checkbox to tick off when one is building schools.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Canal

By the end of the 1940s, Hooker Chemical Company was searching for a place to dispose its large quantity of chemical waste. The Niagara Power and Development Company granted Hooker permission during 1942 to dump wastes into the canal. The canal was drained and lined with thick clay. Into this site, Hooker began placing 55-US-gallon (210 L) drums. In 1947, Hooker bought the canal and the 70-foot-wide (21 m) banks on either side of the canal.[16] It subsequently converted it into a 16-acre (6.5 ha) landfill.[17]

During March 1951, the school board prepared a plan showing a school being built over the canal and listing condemnation values for each property that would need to be acquired.[22] During March 1952, the superintendent of Niagara Falls School Board inquired of Hooker with regard to purchasing the Love Canal property for the purpose of constructing a new school.

Despite the disclaimer, the School Board began construction of the 99th Street School in its originally intended location.

Not long after having taken control of the land, the Niagara Falls School Board proceeded to develop the land, including construction activity that substantially breached containment structures in a number of ways, allowing previously trapped chemicals to seep out.

Over the next three decades, Love Canal attracted national attention for the public health problems originating from the former dumping of toxic waste on the grounds. This event displaced numerous families, leaving them with longstanding health issues and symptoms of high white blood cell counts and leukemia. Subsequently, the federal government passed the Superfund law in 1980. The resulting Superfund cleanup operation demolished the neighborhood, ending in 2004.

When the state of New York stepped in to Love Canal in April 1978, 230 adults and 134 children lived in the homes with backyards directly on the canal, 410 student went to the elementary school, and 2,618 people lived in homes spread not more than four blocks from the landfill.

Love Canal was not an isolated case. Eckardt C. Beck suggested that there are probably hundreds of similar dumpsites.[75] President Carter declared that discovering these dumpsites was "one of the grimmest discoveries of the modern era".

Viking_Hippie reply

lemmy.dbzer0.com

I'm sorry, but the (im)proper nouns in that story just BEG for misleading headlines. Such as:

"Superintendent regrets purchase of love canal from hooker due to illness outbreak"

tal reply

lemmy.today

goes to Google Maps

https://lemmy.today/pictrs/image/0ef32a5c-c9ef-4efb-b171-a35f4ba75c7b.png

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blackstone_River

The Blackstone River in the United States is a river that flows through Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It is 48 mi (77 km) long with a drainage area of 475 mi² (1229 km²).[1] It drains into the Seekonk River at Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Its long history of industrial use in the watershed has caused significant pollution, with a 1990 report from the United States Environmental Protection Agency describing it as “the most polluted river in the country because of high concentrations of toxic sediments.”[2]

The Blackstone River has been significantly impacted by industrial activities and resulting pollution since the 18th century. Early industries discharged a variety of pollutants into the river, including dyes from textile mills,heavy metals and solvents from metal and woodworking industries.[10] Metals are still being measured in sediments near and adjacent to the river.[11][12]

https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/id/eprint/4178/7/WP-94-031.pdf

Despite these improvements in wastewater treatment, the condition of the Blackstone River remained deplorable. In 1937, the Massachusetts State Planning Board described the Blackstone as an "industrial river," whose industrial uses were more important than cleaning up its pollution. In 1940, Worcester reached its peak population, 195,000, the only U.S. city of its size not on the ocean or a major waterway. Total wastewater flow from the city was about 125,000 cubic meters per day (33 million gallons per day [mgd]) and comprised virtually all of the upper Blackstone River's low flow. The wastewater included a large volume of industrial wastes, virtually entirely untreated, in addition to the city's sanitary wastes. These industrial operations provided the most enduring legacy of pollution in the river-heavy metals including chromium and mercury from textile dyes and other metals from the wire manufacturing, metal plating, and machining operations.

Oh, great.