Lake Effect: Two Sisters and a Town's Toxic Legacy

by Nancy A. Nichols

On her deathbed, Sue asked her sister for one to write about the connection between the industrial pollution in their hometown and the rare cancer that was killing her. Fulfilling that promise has been Nancy Nichols’ mission for more than a decade.Lake Effect is the story of her investigation. It reaches back to their childhood in Waukegan, Illinois, an industrial town on Lake Michigan once known for good factory jobs and great fishing. Now Waukegan is famous for its Superfund as one resident put it, asbestos to the north, PCBs to the south. Drawing on her experience as a journalist, Nichols interviewed dozens of scientists, doctors, and environmentalists to determine if these pollutants could have played a role in her sister’s death. While researching Sue’s cancer, she discovered her a vicious though treatable form of pancreatic cancer. Doctors and even family urged her to forget causes and concentrate on cures, but Nichols knew that it was relentless questioning that had led to her diagnosis. And that it is questioning—by government as well as individuals—that could save other lives. Lake Effect challenges us to ask why. It is the fulfillment of a sister’s promise. And it is a call to stop the pollution that is endangering the health of all our families.

Genres: Memoir, Environment

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 18, 2008

Reviews

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

The industries along Lake Michigan in Waukegan, for years, spewed toxic waste into the the lake, land, and air. Dead alewife covered the beaches 3' deep, the lake trout disappeared and introduced coho salmon carried high levels PCBs in their fatty tissues. The people who lived in this industrial shadow, including the author and her sister, became a repository for these toxins. This memoir takes us on a sad and revealing journey of exposure to industrial chemicals and their devastating health effects. The book also reads like a research paper with copious 'notes' on cancer, its causes, history, treatment and the peripheralizing of an environmental justice community, and how justice is evaded.

[Arman Kurniawan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Buku ini menarik dibaca dan bikin pembaca merasa pengen terus ngikutin apa yang terjadi setelah membaca bagian per bagian, tapi banyak hal-hal kimiawi dan medis yang ditulis yang sulit pahami (karena minim penjelasan) apalagi pembaca seperti saya yang awam sama hal-hal tersebut. But still ok.

Kasih spolier dikit. Buku tentang dua perempuan bersaudara yang tinggal di Waukegan, Illnois dekat dengan Danau Michigan. Kemudian, salah satu dari dua bersaudara tersebut meninggal karena kanker ovarium disaat usia mereka dewasa. Sesaat sebelum salah satu dari dua bersaudara tersebut meninggal, sang kakak/adik (saya lupa) berjanji untuk mencari tahu penyebab kanker yang membuat saudaranya meninggal, dan berjanji proses serta hasil investigasi tersebut akan ia buat menjadi suatu tulisan yang akan dipublikasikan. Nah penemuan-penemuan ketika investigasilah yang membuat buku ini menarik dan bikin penasaran