Screen LibraryPoison powder : the Kepone disaster in Virginia and its legacy /
"In 1975, workers at a small makeshift pesticide factory in Hopewell, Virginia became ill after exposure to Kepone, the brand name for a powdered version of the poison chlordecone. News of a few ill workers led to the discovery of mammoth, widespread environmental contamination of the nearby Ja...
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| Main Authors: | |
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| Published: |
The University of Georgia Press,
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| Publisher Address: | Athens, Georgia : |
| Publication Dates: | [2023] |
| Literature type: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Series: |
Environmental history and the American South
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| Subjects: | |
| Summary: |
"In 1975, workers at a small makeshift pesticide factory in Hopewell, Virginia became ill after exposure to Kepone, the brand name for a powdered version of the poison chlordecone. News of a few ill workers led to the discovery of mammoth, widespread environmental contamination of the nearby James River and the larger landscape of the small, working-class town. Dumping of the chemical had been going on for years. Workers at the plant-a converted gas station that seems to have ignored safety regulations-had been breathing in the dust for more than a year. The chemical made their bodies seize and shake. Aspects of this environmental tragedy are all too common: corporate avarice, ignorance, and regulatory failure, along with politicization of science, condescending experts, racism, and classism. The impact was not only in Hopewell, but also on the far away fields where Kepone was used to combat insects. In this book, Gregory Wilson explores the conditions that put the plant and the workers there in the first place, and the effects of the poison on the people and natural world long after 1975"-- |
| Carrier Form: | xi, 236 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: |
9780820363486 0820363480 9780820363479 0820363472 |
| Index Number: | RA1242 |
| CLC: | X592-097.12 |
| Call Number: | X592-097.12/W748 |
| Contents: | Introduction -- The James River before Kepone -- Hopewell, Allied, and the Beetle Battles -- The Kepone Shakes and a Poisoned River -- Biocitizenship and Accountability -- A Crime against Every Citizen -- Kepone and the Environmental Management State -- The Present and Future of Kepone -- Epilogue. |