The area surrounding the Love Canal site is almost entirely residential. Most housing was built between 1953 and 1972. Except for blocks of apartments west of the Canal, dwellings consist of small, single family houses. The total area is estimated to have had a total population in 1978 of about 4,000 persons. About 300 persons live within a block of the Canal on either side of 97th and 99th Streets (99 homes). The area north of Colvin Boulevard contains 211 homes.
Since one possible mode of exposure to Love Canal chemicals involved migration of chemicals through surface soil, considerable attention was focused on local water drainage patterns. Of special interest were natural drainways, or swales, transecting the Love Canal area, especially east of the Canal, and connecting with creeks to the north. Although these swales were filled and leveled as housing developed east of the Canal, the possibility was raised that those channels could still have provided an easy path for chemicals or chemical-laden water to flow from the Canal. Epidemiologic and toxicologic studies took special note of houses built along the course of these swales (so called "wet" areas).
Postgraduate Diploma in Occupational Health (DOH) - Modules 3:
Occupational Medicine & Toxicology (Basic) by Profs Mohamed
Jeebhay and Rodney
Ehrlich,
Health
Sciences UCT is licensed under a
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Major contributors: Mohamed Jeebhay, Rodney Ehrlich, Jonny Myers,
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Last updated Jan 2007.
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