Sunday I spent the day in Connecticut, interviewing four graduates of SUNY New Paltz who lived in the dioxin dorms between 1992 and 1994. This is a one hour program that includes an introduction to the issue in the first few minutes, before the interviews begin.
The story relates to some college dormitories that were contaminated by PCBs and dioxins in 1991, and which were reoccupied without proper testing or cleanup. While on one level this is a story about one incident on one campus, in truth New Paltz is everywhere.
If you would like to read additional background, here is a recent article, called “Who Will Tell Students About the Dioxin Dorms?” Here is a website devoted to the issue, and a blog that updates fairly regularly.
If you know people in the media, such as editors to radio hosts to bloggers, please send them this page. Thank you.
Here is your program in the old player, where you’ll find the full archives and a downloadable zip file.
Lovingly,
Note to readers — there are many more podcasts, the full archives, recordings and interviews from astrology conferences and much more at the Planet Waves FM homepage.
Did you know that Planet Waves offers you a variety of astrological readings for every sign in audio format including birthday reports? You’re invited to check them out in our audio store. If you’d like access to Eric’s weekly and monthly horoscopes, visit this link to access your free trial to our premium twice-weekly astrology service.
I just read Fe’s posting of the transcript of Sandra Fluke’s testimony before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee. I was struck by the eerie applicability of her words and expectations of her school to the women in Eric’s interviews. That expectation was to “not have our school create untenable burdens that impede our academic success” due to serious health issues that result from school policies. Yes, there is a difference between being exposed to dioxins and being denied medication because it is a form of birth control, but both situations have led to those serious health issues.
JannKinz
Oh – just to clarify, I did not mean to make video demands to see anyone’s face – I just meant that you were putting “faces” on the issue by telling their personal stories. Audio works just as well as video for me!!!
The more I think about this story though, I really am kind of amazed that the students have not revolted in any way. If this kind of thing happened on my former college campus, I think students would have really pushed hard on the college administration. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking on my part, but my old college class protested just about everything possible. Have there even been any lawsuits filed against SUNY New Paltz?
The dioxin debacle is another canary in the coal mine, now a dead canary, but the miners don’t know the canaries are dying as the corporate and government overseers hide their carcasses. The overseers can’t keep the canaries out of the mine. All they can do is try to hide the dead ones.
In listening to the intro to the podcast, I was forced to think about my husband who died in 1983 at the age of 55 from metastized liver cancer. He had spent twenty years as a high voltage electrician for the City of Detroit, from 1951 to 1971. He spent the last ten years of his life as a psychiatric social worker. Of course, in 1983 no one was asking questions about his prior occupation even though “PCB spills” around transformers had received a smidgen of publicity. I have often wondered about a connection between his prior occupation and his agonizing illness and death, and have some belief that the two were connected.
My husband was twenty-four years older than I am, and has been dead almost thirty years. At the time he went to work as a high voltage electrician, he would have been close in age to the women you have intereviewed, albeit forty years earlier. Though his story may be more subtle (no documented explosion, no known accident), in some ways it may be more insidious than the life stories of those who live in the dioxin dorms where the hazard was known but intentionally covered up. The latter modus operandi brings outrage rising like bile in the throat at the utter disregard for young human life, especially in an educational setting that is supposed to be “in loco parentis.”
Eric, thank you for continuing with this life work of yours, particularly the dioxin exposure, but also for all else that you bring to the light. At times I feel much the misanthrope when I learn of such atrocities one human does to another, but I have learned to check the other side of the medicine/zodiac wheel to see the other side (recently thanks in great part to the PW website). (I also just listened to your podcast of May 26, 2011 about Gemini and dualities.)
All I can do right now is quote Linus van Pelt (Charles Schulz): “I love mankind. It’s people I can’t stand.”
Again, thank you. JannKinz
very powerful! Great work!
Thanks. We will have the video version next week or so; I’m not as fast as that. There will be faces on the story soon. These ladies are amazing.
Thanks for posting these interviews. I think it is always incredibly powerful and effective to put human faces on events like this. I was moved by the stories told here and also grateful that these women are willing to share their health issues in order to inform. It is really quite astonishing and outrageous that SUNY New Paltz allows these buildings to remain in use and equally astonishing that no warnings are given to incoming students and their families. Thanks for continuing to draw attention to this issue.