About

With the help of Dr. Beverly Paigen, a cancer research scientist at Roswell Memorial Institute in Buffalo, NY and a member of LCHA, a study was produced interviewing more than 75% of homes outside the evacuated area of Love Canal. The data was collected through interviewing each family with a questionnaire and the 239 evacuated families who lived closest to the canal were not included because they were already evacuated. The study found that there were increases in miscarriages, still births, crib deaths, nervous breakdowns, hyperactivity, epilepsy and urinary tract disorders. Each instance of a disorder reported represented a dot on the map that they made. They found clusters of reported disorders around old stream beds and the "historically wet" areas.

Goals

The goal of the health study was to show the extreme conditions residents in the area were exposed to. Through the map, they were able to show the concentration of high incident reports. They created several maps for the different disorders including: miscarriages, still births, birth defects, nervous breakdowns, and urinary diseases.