May 12: 'Sacrifice Zones' author
Journalist Steve Lerner to speak on toxic chemical exposure
9:52 a.m., April 25, 2011--Steve Lerner, a journalist and author of the book "Sacrifice Zones: The Front Lines of Chemical Exposure in the United States," Will speak at noon, Thursday, May 12, in the Ewing Room of the Perkins Student Center.
The free presentation is sponsored by the University of Delaware Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice and the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy. The talk is co-sponsored by the UD Disaster Research Center and the Sociology Club.
Events Stories
June 5: Blue Hen 5K
June 6-9: Food and culture series
Lerner's book, published in 2010 by MIT Press, tells the stories of residents of low-income communities across the country who took action when pollution from heavy industry contaminated their towns.
In "Sacrifice Zones," Lerner focuses on 12 communities that rose up to fight the industries and military bases that were causing disproportionately high levels of chemical pollution.
He calls these low-income neighborhoods "sacrifice zones," repurposing a Cold War term coined by U.S. government officials to designate areas contaminated with radioactive pollutants during the manufacture of nuclear weapons. He argues that residents of a new generation of sacrifice zones, tainted with chemical pollutants, need additional regulatory protections.
The book "Sacrifice Zones" offers compelling portraits of accidental activists who have become grassroots leaders in the struggle for environmental justice and details the successful tactics they have used on the fence line with heavy industry.
The book also describes the plague of environmentally induced diseases that people who live nearby heavy industry endure, and shows how these communities are rising up to take action against the polluters.
The book is based on hundreds of interviews of residents of communities on the fence line with heavy industry.