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So it's interesting to know why people say what they do when (1982) they do. At 5:23 Rear Adm. Hopper says "they are dumping polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

So it's interesting to know why people say what they do *when* (1982) they do. At 5:23 Rear Adm. Hopper says "they are dumping polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) around the country side". Toxic waste was a highly relevant cultural phenomena at the time. I believe she was referencing the "Valley of the Drums" toxic waste site which was proposed as a superfund site in 12/82. Love Canal made the subject popular 5 years earlier. For some reason I'm extremely interested in toxic waste. Anyways bit of reference.

MisterTea 2y ago
> For some reason I'm extremely interested in toxic waste. Anyways bit of reference. Toxic waste is a real life monster that make for the best horror stories. Fictional monsters as in creatures aint got shit on real life willful poisoning of entire communities causing the suffering and deaths of millions. And its all done intentionally because someone wants more money - greed. The real monsters take on a dual form - the head of the beast being the people responsible and the body being the invisible poisons carelessly tossed onto the earth. Makes lovecraft and others look like mickey mouse.
- hnpolicestate 2y ago
  I agree. Well said. For anyone interested, this is far and away the best book I've read on the subject of toxic waste. It became rare over the past 5 years. Used to be available on Open Library but I think they received a DMCA. Even the NYC public library only has one copy located at the main branch. Library wouldn't let me loan it out. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Road_to_Love_Canal.html?id=OFhfAgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Road_to_Love_Canal....
  - MisterTea 2y ago
    I should also have mentioned that as a child this issue of Nat Geo truly scared me scared me more than any silly horror movie could: https://archive.org/details/edg-ng-1981/edg%20NG%201985-03%20167-3%20Mar/page/n41/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/edg-ng-1981/edg%20NG%201985-03%2...
  - Bluestein 2y ago
    > It became rare over the past 5 years. This needs Torrent-seeded to death, in the public interest.-
- namaria 2y ago
  You know, I find hard to enjoy fiction because I have read so much history. The things that actually happened to real people, the things real people have done... they are just way more incredible and terrible than any one author is capable of dreaming up. The fact that they actually happened also gives them more heft...
russellbeattie 2y ago
Here in Silicon Valley there's often surprise at my reluctance to eat fruit grown from back yard trees. It's sort of assumed that fruit right off the tree is somehow organic and healthy. "Have you checked to see if this area is sitting on EPA Superfund designated land, or down stream?" The response is usually a blank look. So I ask them why is this area called Silicon Valley? Then I ask if they realize how incredibly toxic the solvents used in chip manufacturing are? And then I ask how much 1950s and 60s companies cared about environmental concerns? Most people connect the dots pretty quickly. "Holy shit." Is the usual response. It really wouldn't surprise me if Fairchild, Intel and the rest just took barrels of used chemicals out back and dumped them into holes in the ground back when. Google got hit by this a few years ago when they built an office building on top of toxic waste and now have to have 24/7 basement ventilation to make sure workers there don't get sick. There are whole neighborhoods built on that same polluted land. I'll get my orange from Safeway, thanks.
- kragen 2y ago
  my old boss worked at a fairchild site. he said it was now a superfund site because, yes, that's what they did
- EvanAnderson 2y ago
  > Here in Silicon Valley there's often surprise at my reluctance ... It's definitely not just the Valley. I live in rural western Ohio. It was really eye-opening to see how much contamination there is even here, in a relatively sparsely-populated area. Once I knew the extent my feelings about local real estate changed dramatically. Everybody should research toxic sites in their area. No doubt the manufacturing center in Dayton, OH, helped drive local contamination. I'm in a suburb 30 miles away in another county, however. We've got fun Superfund sites like the old county incinerator (PCB), two contaminated aquifers (tetrachloroethene and trichloroethylene) under the largest town in the County (from three sources, too!), and lead from a battery "recycler". I simply can't understand the mentality earlier generations had re: environmental contamination. I hear it in my father (71) re: anthropogenic climate change ("I can't believe the activities of humans could change such a large system...") and I imagine similar sentiments were in the minds of people dumping PCB or lead into the ground. It's chilling to me.
mindcrime 2y ago
This story[1] would have been in the news around that time as well, FWIW. I'm guessing there were probably many other related cases around the country also. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident. The "illegal PCB dumping incident" refers to dumping of PCB contaminated oil from the Ward Transformer Factory along the sides of highways in several (14) NC counties, back in 1978. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_PCB_Landfill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_PCB_Landfill
- mulmen 2y ago
  PCB contaminated oil or oil contaminated PCB? They both seem awful.

So it's interesting to know why people say what they do *when* (1982) they do. At 5:23 Rear Adm. Hopper says "they are dumping polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)

MisterTea 2y ago

> For some reason I'm extremely interested in toxic waste. Anyways bit of reference. Toxic waste is a real life monster that make for the best horror stories. Fictional monsters as in creatures aint got shit on real life willful poisoning of entire communities causing the suffering and deaths of millions. And its all done intentionally because someone wants more money - greed. The real monsters take on a dual form - the head of the beast being the people responsible and the body being the invisible poisons carelessly tossed onto the earth. Makes lovecraft and others look like mickey mouse.

hnpolicestate 2y ago
I agree. Well said. For anyone interested, this is far and away the best book I've read on the subject of toxic waste. It became rare over the past 5 years. Used to be available on Open Library but I think they received a DMCA. Even the NYC public library only has one copy located at the main branch. Library wouldn't let me loan it out. https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Road_to_Love_Canal.html?id=OFhfAgAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Road_to_Love_Canal....
- MisterTea 2y ago
  I should also have mentioned that as a child this issue of Nat Geo truly scared me scared me more than any silly horror movie could: https://archive.org/details/edg-ng-1981/edg%20NG%201985-03%20167-3%20Mar/page/n41/mode/2up https://archive.org/details/edg-ng-1981/edg%20NG%201985-03%2...
- Bluestein 2y ago
  > It became rare over the past 5 years. This needs Torrent-seeded to death, in the public interest.-
namaria 2y ago
You know, I find hard to enjoy fiction because I have read so much history. The things that actually happened to real people, the things real people have done... they are just way more incredible and terrible than any one author is capable of dreaming up. The fact that they actually happened also gives them more heft...

russellbeattie 2y ago

Here in Silicon Valley there's often surprise at my reluctance to eat fruit grown from back yard trees. It's sort of assumed that fruit right off the tree is somehow organic and healthy. "Have you checked to see if this area is sitting on EPA Superfund designated land, or down stream?" The response is usually a blank look. So I ask them why is this area called Silicon Valley? Then I ask if they realize how incredibly toxic the solvents used in chip manufacturing are? And then I ask how much 1950s and 60s companies cared about environmental concerns? Most people connect the dots pretty quickly. "Holy shit." Is the usual response. It really wouldn't surprise me if Fairchild, Intel and the rest just took barrels of used chemicals out back and dumped them into holes in the ground back when. Google got hit by this a few years ago when they built an office building on top of toxic waste and now have to have 24/7 basement ventilation to make sure workers there don't get sick. There are whole neighborhoods built on that same polluted land. I'll get my orange from Safeway, thanks.

kragen 2y ago
my old boss worked at a fairchild site. he said it was now a superfund site because, yes, that's what they did
EvanAnderson 2y ago
> Here in Silicon Valley there's often surprise at my reluctance ... It's definitely not just the Valley. I live in rural western Ohio. It was really eye-opening to see how much contamination there is even here, in a relatively sparsely-populated area. Once I knew the extent my feelings about local real estate changed dramatically. Everybody should research toxic sites in their area. No doubt the manufacturing center in Dayton, OH, helped drive local contamination. I'm in a suburb 30 miles away in another county, however. We've got fun Superfund sites like the old county incinerator (PCB), two contaminated aquifers (tetrachloroethene and trichloroethylene) under the largest town in the County (from three sources, too!), and lead from a battery "recycler". I simply can't understand the mentality earlier generations had re: environmental contamination. I hear it in my father (71) re: anthropogenic climate change ("I can't believe the activities of humans could change such a large system...") and I imagine similar sentiments were in the minds of people dumping PCB or lead into the ground. It's chilling to me.

mindcrime 2y ago

This story[1] would have been in the news around that time as well, FWIW. I'm guessing there were probably many other related cases around the country also. The landfill was created in 1982 by the State of North Carolina as a place to dump contaminated soil as result of an illegal PCB dumping incident. The "illegal PCB dumping incident" refers to dumping of PCB contaminated oil from the Ward Transformer Factory along the sides of highways in several (14) NC counties, back in 1978. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_PCB_Landfill https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_County_PCB_Landfill

mulmen 2y ago
PCB contaminated oil or oil contaminated PCB? They both seem awful.