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→History: Minor clarification: the widespread contamination of the James River by Chlordecone was due both to releases of this insecticide as well as to the discharge of waste byproducts and other waste materials from the manufacturing process |
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== History ==
In the U.S., chlordecone, commercialized under the brand name "Kepone", was produced by [[Allied Signal Company]] and LifeSciences Product Company in [[Hopewell, Virginia]]. The improper handling and dumping of the substance (including the waste materials generated in its manufacturing process) into the nearby [[James River (Virginia)|James River]] (U.S.) in the 1960s and 1970s drew national attention to its toxic effects on humans and wildlife. After two physicians, Dr. Yi-nan Chou and Dr. Robert S. Jackson of the Virginia Health Department, notified the Centers for Disease Control that employees of the company had been found to have toxic chemical poisoning, LifeSciences voluntarily closed its plant on July 4, 1975, and cleanup of the contamination began and a 100-mile section of the James River was closed to fishing while state health officials looked for other persons who might have been injured. <ref name=McAllister>"Two young doctors stopped the spread of Kepone poisoning", by Bill McAllister, L.A. Times-Washington Post Service, reprinted in ''Courier-Journal'' (Louisville KY), January 5, 1976, p. 1</ref> At least 29 people in the area were hospitalized as a result of their exposure to Kepone. <ref name=McAllister/>
The product is similar to DDT and is a degradation product of [[Mirex]].<ref name=Ullmann2/> Chlordecone was not federally regulated until after the Hopewell disaster, in which 29 factory workers were hospitalized with various ailments, including [[neurological]].<ref name=foster05>Richard Foster, [https://richmondmagazine.com/news/kepone-disaster-pesticide/ Kepone: The 'Flour' Factory], ''Richmond Magazine'' (July 8, 2005).</ref> Chlordecone is cited amongst a handful of other noxious substances as the driver for [[Gerald Ford]]'s half-hearted approval in 1976 of the [[Toxic Substances Control Act]], which "remains one of the most controversial regulatory bills ever passed".<ref name="hanson07">{{cite journal |last1=Hanson |first1=David J. |title=Those Were The Days |journal=Chemical & Engineering News |date=15 January 2007 |volume=85 |issue=3 |url=https://cen.acs.org/articles/85/i3/Those-Days.html |publisher=American Chemical Society|doi=10.1021/cen-v085n003.p044 }}</ref>
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