Lois Gibbs: reluctant activist leads grass roots opposition to toxic waste sites
by Vicki Wolf, November 2006

“I read about Love Canal and expected someone to come knocking on my door asking for money – that’s how I thought I would help,” says Lois Gibbs. No one came, and that’s when Gibbs knew it was up to her to get her family and her neighbors out of harms way.

Gibbs was a housewife living near a toxic waste site in the Love Canal neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. She had two young children and a husband who worked for Goodyear Chemical.

Gibbs’ son, Michael, became ill after the family moved to Love Canal. He was in kindergarten at the 99^th Street School, on the perimeter of the toxic waste site -- the playground was on top of the site. “When nobody knocked on my door, I went to the school board and asked to have my child moved to another school,” Gibbs recalls. The school board president told her to get her pediatrician to write a letter saying that attending the school was dangerous to his health.

“I remember Dr. Long had a huge walnut desk. I sat down in a tiny chair,” Gibbs recalls. He told Gibbs that if attending the school was dangerous to her son’s health, then it was dangerous to 407 other students. He said he could not recommend that Michael be moved to another school for health reasons and suggested that Gibbs place her son in a private school.

Gibbs says she was shocked and recalls that moment in the doctor’s office: “I sat there and cried. My husband made $10,000 a year. Michael’s medical bills were piling up. There was no way we could afford private school,” she remembers. “It popped my bubble – my belief in America. This is not how it’s suppose to be.”

Gibbs disbelief turned to anger. Anger turned to courage. “I decided I was the one to knock on doors.” She says it was amazing how many people were waiting for someone to come.”

Gibbs researched the Love Canal situation and Hooker Chemical Company, a subsidiary of Occidental petroleum, and the company responsible for dumping toxic waste in Love Canal. She found that the 20,000 tons of chemical buried in her neighborhood, including chloroform, dioxin, trichlorathane, tetrachlorethane and the banned pesticide Lindane and benzene, was the likely cause of ill health many people in the area suffered. She found out that as early as 1976, company executives knew that homes in Love Canal had levels of toxins in the air that exceeded workplace standards. “The company was deliberate and intended that it was okay for families to be exposed to these hazardous toxins,” Gibbs says. “That was morally wrong.”

In 1978, Gibbs and her neighbors formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association and called for closing the school and relocating those who lived in the neighborhood. They struggled with all levels of government and Occidental Petroleum who argued that the health problems in Love Canal were not caused by the toxic waste. The group of women fighting for environmental justice at Love Canal became skilled in getting media attention. They held actions every two weeks. One involved driving coffins from Niagara Fall to Albany, going 50 miles per hour and taking up two lanes of traffic.

In August 1978, the Love Canal story was covered by The New York Times and news media across the country started to tell the story. Gibbs appeared on the Phil Donahue Show and other talk shows. Their persistent and effective efforts to increase awareness paid off and in 1980, President Jimmy Carter issued an order allowing the paid evacuation of the 900 families living at Love Canal and started a Superfund to clean up hazardous sites across the country.

Organizing the Love Canal Neighborhood took its toll on families. Most of the men living in Love Canal worked for the chemical company and would lose their jobs if they took action against the company. Women took on the role of family protectors. Gibbs’ and her husband found themselves switching roles. He took care of the children and household chores while she went to meetings and organized actions. He was harassed by men who were concerned about losing their jobs, and he was kicked off his position as health and safety officer of his union. “The men felt helpless, deflated and angry,” Gibbs says. “My husband would say, ‘I’m not washing any more diapers. I’m not going to another soccer game,’” she recalls. “It was really about feeling helpless to protect the family,” she says.

After the exposure of Love Canal, Gibbs received inquiries from thousands of people saying they thought they might have a hazardous waste site in their area. Although she told her husband she would come back home and resume her role as housewife when Love Canal received justice, Gibbs couldn’t abandon the women who were calling her for help. She decided to continue grassroots organizing. Gibbs and her husband decided to part as friends and were divorced. They both have since remarried.

Gibbs went on to start the Center for Health, Environment and Justice (CHEJ) in Falls Church, Virginia. The organization receives about 1,500 requests for assistance each year and works with communities across the country to build coalitions to protect their homes and families from chemical contamination. CHEJ’s Science and Technical Assistance Program translates the technical, health and scientific aspects of chemical exposures into language that is easy to understand. Its Organizing and Information Services Programs help communities identify volunteer leaders, form organizations and networks, develop basic skills and expand their community base. On a national level, the organization works to reduce public exposure to persistent organic chemicals and advocates for precautionary action. CHEJ also has initiated the PVC Campaign to encourage large stores like Walmart and Target to stop selling products made from or packaged in PVC.

To download a video that offers information about PVC plastics in an entertaining format, and for other information about CHEJ, go to www.CHEJ.org.

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