Dispatch from Toxic Town

In this reading, Tara Hulen writes about the small town of Anniston. Anniston was dubbed the “Model City” because of all the little things about it that made it seem like such a wonderful place to live after it was founded. All was well in Anniston until the day a fisherman caught a deformed fish. This was the discovery that would change the so-called “Model City” to the “Toxic Town.” 

The main villain of sorts in this reading is Monsanto. Monsanto had been dumping, PCBs, which were chemicals that they were fully suspected were dangerous to people and also knew they were toxic to animals as far back as the late 1930’s. This is something I found deeply disturbing when while reading this essay. I look at this company, a company that knew what they were doing was dangerous, and I must wonder if practices like that are still continuing to happen to this very day. I would have to lean more towards the idea that actions like this are still being taken. 

The real sad part about this entire essay is the repercussion that the individuals still living in Anniston have to deal with. People like the lady named in the article who thinks her lupus was caused by the harmful chemicals or the children who cannot even go outside to play for fear they will be harmed. Solutia, the company currently located in Anniston, has tried to make up for the past by building harms on new dirt and also paying through lawsuits. I think this is a slap in the face to all the people who have died that probably died directly Monsanto “dumping” on them. They cannot make up for what they have done.