489 - Book Club—Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe with Keith O'Brien
Public Health On Call
The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
4.6 • 644 Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2022
⏱️ 21 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In the late 1970s, residents of a working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York learned their community was built on a toxic waste dump that was causing significant health problems. Keith O'Brien, author of Paradise Falls: The True Story of an Environmental Catastrophe, talks with Dr. Josh Sharfstein about what became known as the Love Canal Disaster. The incredible story includes mobilized moms, exploding rocks, a hostage situation, and a young Congressman from Tennessee.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to Public Health On Call, a podcast from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Joshua Sharfstein, Vice Dean for Public Health Practice and Community Engagement, |
| 0:16.9 | and a former health commissioner here in Baltimore. |
| 0:19.7 | Our goal is to bring evidence and experience to |
| 0:22.5 | illuminate critical public health issues. If you have questions or ideas for us, please send an |
| 0:27.9 | email to public health question at jhhhu.edu. That's public health question at jhut.edu for future |
| 0:35.4 | podcast episodes. Hi, I'm Lindsay Smith Rogers, producer of Public Health on Call. |
| 0:40.9 | Today, a special episode on a landmark event in environmental health, |
| 0:45.1 | The Contamination of Love Canal. |
| 0:47.5 | Dr. Josh Sharfstein speaks to Keith O'Brien, author of a new book entitled Paradise Falls, |
| 0:53.4 | The True Story of an environmental catastrophe. |
| 0:56.6 | Let's listen. |
| 0:58.1 | Keith, O'Brien, thanks so much for joining me on Public Health On Call |
| 1:02.1 | to talk about your book about Love Canal. |
| 1:05.0 | Now, I knew a little about Love Canal until I opened your book, |
| 1:08.9 | and then I couldn't put it down. |
| 1:10.6 | Tell us what |
| 1:11.0 | the story is about. Yeah, that's a great observation, Josh. I think for a great many people, |
| 1:17.8 | Love Canal is a term that is familiar and suggestive of a disaster, but most people have |
| 1:26.0 | forgotten what happened there. |
| 1:28.7 | And what Love Canal was, was one of the great environmental and public health disasters of the 20th century. |
| 1:36.5 | It is the story of a working class neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls that, unbeknownst to the residence, was built around an old canal |
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