Toxic Town by Peter C. Little

Author:Peter C. Little [Little, Peter C.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Industries, Computers & Information Technology, Science, Environmental Science, Social Science, Anthropology, General, Technology & Engineering, Environmental, Pollution Control, Waste Management
ISBN: 9780814760697
Google: 8Q0UCgAAQBAJ
Publisher: NYU Press
Published: 2014-03-14T05:24:17+00:00

Shelley’s Story: The Outspoken Republican and Depoliticizer

Shelley was the first WBESC member I interviewed when I returned to Endicott for fieldwork in the summer of 2008. Reflecting on her time as a nurse for IBM’s first aid unit between 1969 and 1979, Shelley told me she had firsthand experience with IBM workers and chemical exposure issues: “Wherever they needed me I would go. We had about 23 on staff and 3 full shift … I was the person workers would go to if there was a body spill. They had to come to my first aid. They would go directly into the shower and they would be cursing up a storm. Some of them burned and many were released for blood work.” In addition to being a nurse at the plant, Shelley was a Broome county legislator for 20 years, and has been described by local journalists as an “outspoken Republican.” Sitting in her living room on Endicott’s hilly “North side,” located outside of the IBM Endicott plume, she explained why she got involved with RAGE and told me about the history of the emergence of the WBESC:

You know, I may not live in the plume, but I know what those people are going through and the anxiety level, I am sure, with the landlords and home owners. You know it is probably not something they are thinking about all the time, but the next time you get a little pain in your gut and you go to the doctor, it is in the back of your head, “I wonder. I wonder.” But, I refuse to have this thing politicized. I don’t know how many times I have to remind a few of our members that this is not a democratic issue. And Alan Turnbull, the guy who got the whole RAGE thing started, he’s a fantastic guy. He is the guy who got me involved and he said we really need you. I attended a couple of meetings and I realized that there were several constituency groups, from Sierra Club to the CARE organization to RAGE, and a whole lot of people who weren’t organized. Well, I also know that our resources are limited here in New York. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to have officials responding to several constituency groups every single month. We are important, but we are not that important, but together we can say to them, “Instead of coming down six times a month to Broome County, why don’t you come down once and all of our groups could be part of this coalition.” They liked the idea. I did not know that ATSDR, NIOSH, and the CDC already had a component ready as far as community groups. They came down with a strategic planning group, but you know a strategic planning group doesn’t mean anything to the constituent. I said, “You know, no one knows what that is. A strategic planning group for what?” I said “We have to have a name that identifies us.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.