Synopses & Reviews
Smelting is an industrial process involving the extraction of metal from ore. During this process, impurities in oreandmdash;including arsenic, lead, and cadmiumandmdash;may be released from smoke stacks, contaminating air, water, and soil with toxic-heavy metals.
The problem of public health harm from smelter emissions received little official attention for much for the twentieth century. Though people living near smelters periodically complained that their health was impaired by both sulfur dioxide and heavy metals, for much of the century there was strong deference to industry claims that smelter operations were a nuisance and not a serious threat to health. It was only when the majority of children living near the El Paso, Texas, smelter were discovered to be lead-exposed in the early 1970s that systematic, independent investigation of exposure to heavy metals in smelting communities began. Following El Paso, an even more serious led poisoning epidemic was discovered around the Bunker Hill smelter in northern Idaho. In Tacoma, Washington, a copper smelter exposed children to arsenicandmdash;a carcinogenic threat.
Thoroughly grounded in extensive archival research, Tainted Earth traces the rise of public health concerns about nonferrous smelting in the western United States, focusing on three major facilities: Tacoma, Washington; El Paso, Texas; and Bunker Hill, Idaho. Marianne Sullivan documents the response from community residents, public health scientists, the industry, and the government to pollution from smelters as well as the long road to protecting public health and the environment. Placing the environmental and public health aspects of smelting in historical context, the book connects local incidents to national stories on the regulation of airborne toxic metals.
The nonferrous smelting industry has left a toxic legacy in the United States and around the world. Unless these toxic metals are cleaned up, they will persist in the environment and may sicken peopleandmdash;children in particularandmdash;for generations to come. The twentieth-century struggle to control smelter pollution shares many similarities with public health battles with such industries as tobacco and asbestos where industry supported science created doubt about harm, and reluctant government regulators did not take decisive action to protect the publicandrsquo;s health.
Review
andquot;Tainted Earthand#160;stands out as a compelling demonstration of just how central lead and copper smelters were to the making of our modern science and regulation of environmental pollution in the United States.and#160;The research and writing on display are smoothly woven and in places, inspired.andquot;
Review
andquot;Sullivanandrsquo;s comparative study is unique; she sets many of the regulatory problems of smelters into a firm analytical frameworkand#160;that will be useful for many years.andquot;
Review
andquot;
Tainted Earth provides a detailed history, with a technical focus, of the environmental impact of three metal smelters located in Tacoma, Washington, El Paso,and#160;Texas, and Kellogg, Idaho. This is a well-documented story, providing a warning to other nations where the smelters now glow.andquot;
Review
andquot;An enjoyable and accessible book, The Price of Nuclear Powerand#160;provides great insight into the central problem facing natural resource communities across the globe, and is rich in ethnographic details that focus on environmental inequalities.andquot;and#160;
Review
andquot;Sullivan weaves compelling stories of communities where childrenand#39;s health was irreversibly damaged by heavy metal pollution following smelting industry efforts to downplay and obfuscate the risks of pollution, and efforts to stave off environmental regulation. Well-written and engaging...Tainted Earth will appeal to students oand professionals across a variety of fields, including public health, history of science, toxicology, geography, and environmental policy.andquot;
Review
andquot;Malin provides a compassionate and intriguing ethnography of communities harmed by uranium mining and milling, of government duplicity in covering up hazards, and of the inspiring citizen science with which opponents have mapped cancer clusters and conducted health surveys. This book helps us understand how uranium production, along with other harmful energy production can beget structural violence, disease, and perpetuate inequalities.andquot;
Synopsis
Thoroughly grounded in extensive archival research, Tainted Earth traces the rise of public health concerns about nonferrous smelting in the western United States, focusing on three major facilities: Tacoma, Washington; El Paso, Texas; and Bunker Hill, Idaho. It documents the response from community residents, public health scientists, the industry, and the government to pollution from smelters and the long road to protecting public health and the environment.
Synopsis
In The Price of Nuclear Power, environmental sociologist Stephanie Malin offers an on-the-ground portrait of several uranium communities caught between the harmful legacy of previous mining booms and the potential promise of new economic development. An insightful look at the local impact of the nuclear renaissance and community membersandrsquo; shifting notions of environmental justice, this book warns that this industry needs to be closely followed to mitigate the social and environmental tensions inherent in the rebirth of uranium mining.and#160;
Synopsis
Rising fossil fuel prices and concerns about greenhouse gas emissions are fostering a nuclear power renaissance and a revitalized uranium mining industry across the American West. In
The Price of Nuclear Power, environmental sociologist Stephanie Malin offers an on-the-ground portrait of several uranium communities caught between the harmful legacy of previous mining booms and the potential promise of new economic development. Using this context, she examines how shifting notions of environmental justice inspire divergent views about nuclear powerandrsquo;s sustainability and equally divisive forms of social activism.and#160;and#160;Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted in rural isolated towns such as Monticello, Utah, and Nucla and Naturita, Colorado, as well as in upscale communities like Telluride, Colorado, and incorporating interviews with community leaders, environmental activists, radiation regulators, and mining executives, Malin uncovers a fundamental paradox of the nuclear renaissance: the communities most hurt by uraniumandrsquo;s legacyandmdash;such as high rates of cancers, respiratory ailments, and reproductive disordersandmdash;were actually quick to support industry renewal. She shows that many impoverished communities support mining not only because of the employment opportunities, but also out of a personal identification with uranium, a sense of patriotism, and new notions of environmentalism. But other communities, such as Telluride, have become sites of resistance, skeptical of industry and government promises of safe mining, fearing that regulatory enforcement wonandrsquo;t be strong enough. Indeed, Malin shows that the nuclear renaissance has exacerbated social divisions across the Colorado Plateau, threatening social cohesion. Malin further illustrates ways in which renewed uranium production is not a socially sustainable form of energy development for rural communities, as it is utterly dependent on unstable global markets.and#160;
and#160;The Price of Nuclear Power is an insightful portrait of the local impact of the nuclear renaissance and the social and environmental tensions inherent in the rebirth of uranium mining.
and#160;and#160;
About the Author
STEPHANIE A. MALIN is an assistant professor of sociology at Colorado State University and a faculty affiliate with CSUandrsquo;s Center for Disaster and Risk Analysis and the Water Center.
Table of Contents
List of Figures
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Tacoma Smelter
2. City of Destiny, City of Smoke
3. Uncovering a Crisis in El Paso
4. Bunker Hill
5. Tacoma: A Disaster Is Discovered
6. A Carcinogenic Threat
7. Sacrificed
Conclusion
Notes
Index