Toxic History

By Kristie Murru

Anemia, slowed growth, lower IQ and hyperactivity are just a few of the side effects experienced by children exposed to lead, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency. Lead is just one of the toxic metals and chemicals that the people living in a former iron mining community in Ringwood were and still are exposed to due to the Ford Motor Company’s illegal dumping in the region from 1955 to about 1970.

The social preconceived notions about the people who did not have a say in Ford’s dumping in their native lands are always negative. The argument becomes that somehow the children and adults dying of rare diseases and cancers are suffering in part by what they do in their everyday lives. Ford’s dumping may have played a part but the illnesses they claim to have are simply just an exaggeration. This is clearly not the case, and I found that argument to be completely outrageous. Upon further research, as seen through a Google search, the amount of stories that pop up surrounding this topic is proof enough. The lead, benzene, 1,4 dioxine and other chemicals that can be found not only in Ringwood but the surrounding towns of this Superfund site is inexcusable and completely unavoidable.

When The Record began this story the federal government even reported that the sludge that had been dumped posed no threat to the health of those that live yards away from the dumping sites. These statements were not based on actual evidence or health reports of those living in the area.  In “The Toxic Legacy,” the writers interviewed Myrtle Van Dunk who questioned “how can they tell us how sick we are when they haven’t even sat down to talk to us?” The government’s blind eye in the 1960s is what allowed Ford to take advantage of the indigenous people from the area. That, along with the fear of retaliation kept the people quiet. Living in a society that allows big companies to dump toxic substances into the ground with little to no thought of the repercussions is disgusting.

In 2007 John Holl, author of The New York Times article “Don’t Eat the Squirrels? It’s no Laughing Matter,” interviewed Wayne Mann from the Ramapough Lenape Indian Nation. The residents of Ringwood were ridiculed and taunted on television shows for eating squirrels after news organizations reported that test results found the animals were contaminated by lead. Due to the proximity of the Ringwood Mines and Landfill Superfund site to state forest land, a squirrel was found to be contaminated by the hazardous substance. After the state Health Department circulated these results, the people of Ringwood were outraged. Mann stated, “it’s a food source for us. And you know, there are many other cultures that eat things that aren’t found in the general consciousness, and there is nothing wrong with that.” What should have been seen for what it is, the fact that the wildlife around the area are contaminated, was turned by news stations and the general public into ridicule of the dietary choices the Native American people of Ringwood practice as forms of tradition.

The dump area is often neglected and yet the fact that it had been removed from the National Priorities List for Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste in 1994 and put back on in October 2007 shows that the site is contaminated. The environment has a natural predisposition to right itself when contaminated, but it will take lifetimes to ever potentially right itself after Ford’s dumping of 6 million tons of paint sludge into the area. The only hope is that this topic continues to receive publicity so that the Ford Motor Company and officials continue the clean up.