by Dan Fagin
First published 2013
Dan Fagin investigates how major chemical companies turned Toms River, New Jersey into their private waste disposal site for six decades. The award-winning journalist documents how corporations buried thousands of leaking drums in open pits and pumped billions of gallons of contaminated wastewater into the local river. This environmental assault created a notorious cluster of childhood cancers that scientists eventually linked to the pollution. Fagin traces the work of pioneering researchers who first connected industrial toxins to cancer, while profiling the local heroes who demanded justice. He follows a young boy battling tumors, a nurse who documented the cancer surge, and a mother who became a fierce advocate for her sick child. The investigation culminates in 2001 with one of the largest toxic dumping settlements in legal history. Fagin combines rigorous scientific detective work with deep historical research to show how corporate greed and regulatory failure endangered an entire community. The book reveals how a town that wanted recognition for its Little League champions instead became a cautionary tale about industrial pollution.
Genres: environment, non-fiction, biography-memoir, investigative-journalism, activism, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-justice
Setting: New Jersey, Toms River
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
560 pages · ebook · Bantam
Content warnings: child-death, medical-trauma