Allan Mazur has taken an interesting approach to laying out the issues at Love Canal: the Rashomon effect, referring to viewing the same situation from multiple perspectives. In this case the perspectives are the company involved, the school board that built the school, the public health community, and the local citizenry. As might be expected, each has a different view, and some entities seemed more forthcoming with information than others. The author has not only laid out the facts of the case and the perspectives of key players, but has, with virtue of hindsight, clarified, to as great an extent as seems possible, the 'truth' of the situation...There are several natural audiences for this book. For those interested in the history of the environmental movement, this is an excellent background for understanding the earlier days of concern. For those interested in environmental science and medicine, this book will reinforce the understanding of why and how science must be of the highest quality, just as much for environmental issues as for trials of new vaccines or antibiotics. For classes interested in risk communication, the media, or the crassness of the political area, this book has much to recommend it, though the lessons learned may well make one unhappy in their learning.
