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Hey prime members you can listen to new episodes of mister bolland's medical mysteries early and ad free download the amazon music app today on a late summer morning in nineteen seventy seven a five year old boy ran around the school playground with his friends it was his first day of kindergarten in niagara falls new york and the little boy was having a blast he'd just gotten over a nasty cold and so now he was thrilled to be feeling good enough again that he could actually keep up with the other kids but as he chased after them over to the swings the little boy began to feel strange his head began to feel really heavy and also he couldn't really concentrate and then the next thing he knew he was waking up in the school nurse's office the nurse was looking at him with a smile on her face but the little boy could tell she was clearly worried about something she told him he'd had something called a seizure now the boy wasn't sure what that was but just the way the nurse said it he knew it had to be serious tears began to well up in the boy's eyes and the nurse immediately told him that his mom was on the way and she'd be there soon the boy wiped the tears away and tried to put on a brave face but inside he was terrified he wanted to believe his mom would show up and make everything okay again but at the same time he had never felt so strange before in his whole life and he knew deep down that there were some things parents just couldn't fix he just hoped whatever was happening to him was not one of those things the show is brought to you by progressive fiscally responsible financial geniuses monetary magicians these are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds visit progressive dot com to see if you could save progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates potential savings will vary not available in all states or situations are you searching for a romantic summer getaway escape with rich girl summer the new audible original from lily chu the phenomenally talented philippa su returns to narrate her fifth lilly chu title this time philippa is joined by her real life husband steven pasquale set in toronto's wealthy cottage country aka the hamptons of canada rich girl summer follows the story of valerie a down in her luck event planner posing as a socialite's long lost daughter while piecing together the secrets surrounding a mysterious family and falling deeper and deeper in love with the impossibly hard to read and infuriatingly handsome family assistant nico caught between pretending to belong and unexpectedly finding where she truly fits in valerie learns her summer is about to get far more complicated than she ever planned she's in over her head and head over heels listen to rich girl summer now on audible go to audible dot com richgirlsommar from ballin studios and wondery i'm mister ballin and this is mister ballin's medical mysteries where each week we'll explore a new baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape our own bodies if you like today's story please ask the follow button to go on a hike with you and tell them you'll supply the water but fill up their water bottle with sewage this episode is called it came from the basement in early september of nineteen seventy seven twenty six year old lois gibbs held her son's hand as they left their house in niagara falls new york michael was just five years old and it was his first day of kindergarten and as soon as they reached the front steps of the house michael broke free from his mother and ran across the front yard lois smiled at her son's enthusiasm as she adjusted her oversized glasses and tucked her brown hair behind her ears michael's father was already at work so it was just the two of them walking the few short blocks to ninety ninth street elementary school and as they walked through the neighborhood michael looked up at all the smokestacks that dotted the landscape he pointed out one of them and proudly exclaimed to his mother that that's where daddy was lois smiled at her son and nodded niagara falls was a big blue collar city full of factories like those and they were where most local people were employed which included lois's husband who worked at the local goodyear tire plant it was hard work and lois appreciated everything he did for their family even if he always came home smelling absolutely terrible as lois and michael continued their walk to school a neighbor who was out on their front porch called out hello and asked if the little boy was excited to be starting school lois knew this woman she had a son the same age as michael but the best answer she could muster to this neighbor was just a nod and a smile and then immediately lois looked down and began fiddling with her necklace which was something she did whenever she felt anxious truthfully michael was very excited about school but his mother was just a little bit nervous to let him go michael was an active kid and but he was kind of fragile he had asthma and a history of pneumonia and painful urinary tract infections and these infections really made lois feel helpless because she actually could not give michael any medicine aspirin upset his stomach and he broke out in a rash whenever he took it now michael was starting school and lois worried about all the new viruses and germs he'd be exposed to lois's neighbor continued to talk from her porch and lois tried to focus on what she was saying something about the kids playing baseball that weekend but her anxiety made it really hard to concentrate and so lois's mind wandered and so did her eyes and as she looked around she saw kids running up the front steps of the school and she noticed a man standing nearby the school with a few of the teachers writing something down on a notepad and asking questions lois pointed at this man and actually asked the neighbor on the porch if they knew who this guy was the neighbor glanced over and told lois that that guy was a reporter for the local newspaper which was called the niagara gazette the neighbor guessed that the journalist was there to cover the first day of school lois nodded but then also made a mental note to make sure she totally avoided him he seemed perfectly friendly but the thought of talking to a reporter made her extremely nervous lois waved goodbye to the neighbor and then watched as her son ran ahead to join the other children lois felt a mix of excitement and apprehension grabbing her necklace tight she told herself everything would be fine and then she turned and headed home a few weeks later lois was at home with her sewing machine on the kitchen table and michael was at school lois was stitching some new drapes for the kitchen window when the phone rang lois rolled her eyes annoyed at having to stop when she was right in the middle of a seam but she got up and went over and answered the phone it was the school nurse calling saying that michael was lying on her bed in her office during recess michael had become glassy eyed and unresponsive for just a few seconds and he seemed to be fine now but the nurse suspected he likely had a small seizure lois breathing immediately quickened as she asked the nurse to please repeat that the nurse reassured lois that while it was scary that he had a seizure the seizure was short and michael was totally back to his normal self now still the nurse suggested that lois come and get her son and take him to his pediatrician as soon as possible lois could feel her heart racing as she slammed the phone on the receiver and then fumbled with her shoes as she raced out her front door after getting to the school and picking michael up lois took him straight to see the doctor the doctor gave him a thorough examination and promised lois that michael's vitals did look fine and he was not in any sort of imminent danger he said that while it was rare kids could sometimes have minor seizures with no obvious cause but if this happened again he did advise lois to take michael to a specialist lois was glad to hear that her son was okay but she was still very nervous she already had to monitor michael's fragile health and now she had to also watch out for these seizures too she just hoped that it really was a one time thing and that this would not become a recurring issue but unfortunately the seizures didn't stop over the next few months lois would learn to recognize when they were happening there didn't seem to be any particular trigger for them michael might be playing in the backyard or doing his homework or watching tv when all of a sudden his eyes would just kind of glaze over and he would become unresponsive for a few seconds then as if nothing had happened he'd just be right back to normal every time it happened lois rushed to michael's side holding his hand and reassuring him that everything was okay but inside she was terrified she knew it was only a matter of time until michael's seizures actually caused a major problem he could be playing on the jungle gym and have a seizure and fall and get hurt or he could be crossing the street and have a seizure and then get hit by a car and so finally when it became fairly obvious to everybody involved that these seizures were likely not going away anytime soon michael's pediatrician referred lois to a neurologist lois finally got michael an appointment in december of nineteen seventy seven about three months after michael had his first seizure lois gave the neurologist a detailed history of michael's various seizures and the doctor quickly diagnosed him with epilepsy a brain disorder that causes chronic seizures even though lois had been expecting something like this she was still stunned to hear it there was no family history of epilepsy michael had never experienced any kind of physical trauma that might trigger seizures she'd always fed her family a healthy and nutritious diet she didn't even allow soda in the house and so finally lois asked the neurologist you know what could i have done differently that could have protected my son from this but the doctor assured lois that michael's diagnosis was not her fault he said epilepsy can have many causes ranging from a past brain infection to a genetic abnormality but while this was somewhat reassuring it didn't really actually clarify for lois why her son developed epilepsy to her it just didn't add up after the appointment lois drove to the pharmacy and picked up the anti seizure medication the specialist had prescribed as she did she still couldn't believe this was actually happening two months later in february of nineteen seventy eight michael and lois were back inside of a doctor's office this time it was michael's pediatrician lois tried to entertain michael by playing the game i spy with him but michael just sat on the exam table looking pale and very tired in fact lois had never seen michael so tired and run down before when the pediatrician finally came into the room he was examined michael and told lois that she was right to be concerned anti seizure medication could lower a child's energy levels but michael shouldn't be this out of it the doctor ordered a full battery of blood tests then sent lois and michael home promising to call them with the results as soon as they came in and a few hours later the pediatrician would call lois and as soon as she picked up he would say that unfortunately he had bad news he told lois that michael's white blood cell count had dropped significantly so much so that the pediatrician hadn't even known what to do and had to go to a colleague to ask for their advice and so from what he learned he told lois that michael's medication could be what's causing this drop but he also said that they needed to prepare for another darker possibility the doctor explained that michael might be developing cancer or perhaps a serious blood disorder when lois heard this she just stood there frozen in the kitchen it was like time suddenly was standing still and for a few moments lois just didn't say anything she just stood there but then finally she collected herself enough to ask the doctor how they would know for sure what this was the pediatrician sighed and said unfortunately he did not have the answer and that michael would have to be referred to more specialists to get to an answer as the pediatrician talked lois found herself walking over to the kitchen doorway and she looked in on michael who was fast asleep on the couch he looked so helpless and she had no idea what to do at a loss lois thanked the pediatrician for all his help so far then she hung up the phone in a haze.
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Candice rivera has it all in just three years she went from stay at home mum to traveling the world saving lives and making millions anyone would think candace's charmed life is about as real as unicorns but sometimes the truth is even harder to believe than the lies not true there are.
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So many things not true you gotta.
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Believe me i'm charli webster and this is unicorn girl an apple original podcast produced by seven hills follow and listen on apple podcasts.
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Same time that lois was receiving this devastating news a twenty six year old reporter named mike brown stood in the driveway of a wood and brick ranch style home a couple of blocks away and as he stood there he rubbed his hands together to keep them warm against the winter cold mike grew up in the area so he knew a lot about niagara falls and the people who lived in this town and as a rookie reporter with the niagara gazette he was more than willing to go door to door asking his neighbors for leads on the stories he was investigating he liked proving himself today mike was investigating reports of water backing up into people's backyards even when it wasn't raining one of mike's sources said the city had done a lousy job at maintaining sewer pipes and so they were starting to get clogged this sort of negligence really got under mike's skin mike strode up the driveway of the ranch home and knocked on the door and then waited until a petite woman answered the door mike introduced himself and explained that he was hoping she could help him as soon as mike brought up what he was investigating reports of water backups the woman just shook her head in disgust and then invited mike to follow her into her backyard mike followed thrilled to finally get a lead on the story he'd been knocking on doors all morning without any luck it was mid winter so mike did not expect to see standing water anywhere because there was too much snow on the ground but this woman's yard looked like a frozen over mud pit the woman told mike that this was totally typical that for years her yard had been coated in muck and in the winter it turned to ice mike couldn't imagine how upset he'd be if his own backyard was this bad then the woman pointed over to a large circular hole right in the middle of the yard she explained that they used to have an above ground swimming pool that was located right there but a few summers ago there had been so much standing water coming into the yard that the pool actually began to float so she and her husband decided to replace the above ground pool with a cement one but when they dug the hole for it the hole had filled up with rancid smelling yellow blue and purple liquids and so at that point they decided to just stop with the pool and they did not end up building one mike asked the woman if he could take a few pictures and she said that was fine and so he pulled out a small camera and snapped a few photos of the yard just so he'd remember it later on when he was back in the office then he thanked the woman for showing him the yard and said he would be in touch after that mike grabbed a quick sandwich from the nearby gas station and then wolfed it down in his car while he looked over his notes he had originally thought he'd be researching a story about bad drainage but as he looked at his notes he was beginning to think that maybe the problem here was bigger than that he was certain that the strange stinking liquid the woman talked about could not be normal flooding but he would need to talk to more people to figure out what was actually going on half an hour later mike was back to knocking on doors around ninety ninth street after trying a few houses he finally connected with a middle aged couple who after hearing what mike was researching said they'd be happy to talk to him the moment mike entered their house he could smell mold but it wasn't the normal smell of mildew there was something stale and sort of plasticky about it a little alarm bell began ringing in the back of mike's head something was really wrong here the husband who was tall and had a beer belly said he wanted to bring mike down into the basement but as soon as the husband opened up the door that led to the basement steps the smell coming out of the basement was this horrible rancid wet smell that burned mike's nose mike wondered if maybe this was the same smell that the petite woman he had spoken to at the other house smelled at the bottom of that hole in her yard the husband and mike began descending the stairs but about halfway down the husband stopped and just told mike to look around and so mike would look around the basement and right away he saw all this thick black sludge seeping in through the walls of the basement and and kind of collecting in the corners on the floor mike asked the husband how long their basement had been like this and the man said you know they'd been trying to dry the basement out for about twenty years now the husband said they had tried everything they could to clear out the sludge but nothing had worked the husband also said he called the city countless times to try to get them to help him but he said nobody from the city ever called him back this really upset mike this couple's living in a house full of this terrible smell and sludge for years and years and the city had just ignored them it was becoming clear to mike that this neighborhood around ninety ninth street had a problem and this story was definitely going to be a lot bigger than just a drainage issue after thanking the couple for their time mike headed back outside looking forward to take a deep breath of fresh air but when he stepped out onto the stoop he the smell of mold he had smelled inside the house was now replaced with a different sour smell he scrunched his nose up and pulled his shirt collar up to his eyes and covered his mouth with his hand as he approached the ninety ninth street elementary school playground he could taste the sour chemical like smell in his mouth it made his throat sting which made it hard to breathe and by the time he reached the playground mike was actually wheezing from this sour smell and that's when he looked out over the school playground and saw several pools of what looked like oil on the ground yet school was in session he could see lights on in all the classrooms as though nothing was wrong at this point mike was furious it seemed obvious to him that something dangerous was going on here and the city was clearly ignoring it mike turned on his heels and rushed back towards his car anxious to get back to his office and start writing about what he was finding a few weeks later in april of nineteen seventy eight lois gibbs whose son michael was epileptic and still very sick anxiously stood in the school superintendent's office she was clutching a few of mike brown's newspaper articles that had just come out that week in the niagara gazette the articles explained that there were all these horrible smelling liquids that were collecting all around the neighborhood right around the elementary school and so lois was worried these liquids were what was making her son sick despite her natural shyness lois had actually called a meeting to talk over the situation with the superintendent lois slid the articles to the superintendent across his shiny oak desk and she told him about her son's health issues even though michael's health had stabilized and the doctors concluded he did not have cancer he still wasn't getting better and so after reading mike brown's articles lois had become convinced that these black sludge pools at the school must have something to do with her son's illness lois told the superintendent that she did not feel safe having michael on school grounds until these black pools could be investigated by specialists with tears welling in her eyes she said that she was worried michael was going to die she wanted him transferred out of the school immediately across from her the superintendent kind of dramatically leaned back in his oversized leather chair and then a look of forced empathy came across his face and this look kind of unnerved lois and she began fiddling with her necklace again but she pressed on she pushed two doctor's notes across the desk trying to look self assured the superintendent looked at her and then looked at the notes and then his look of empathy disappeared and his eyes narrowed as he told lois that she was definitely overreacting all the other students were just fine the articles were mistaken there was nothing wrong with the school lois tried to stay calm and so in a sort of shaky but somewhat even voice she told the superintendent that he was being way too casual with the health of the students at ninety ninth street elementary school but the superintendent just shook his head no that was not true then he slid the doctor's notes back across the desk and pointed his finger accusingly at lois he told her that he wasn't about to upend the whole school for one sick kid and a hysterical housewife the words felt like a slap in the face to lois she didn't understand how anyone working in education could be so heartless and so she grabbed her purse and stormed out of the room as she drove home after the meeting lois felt shell shocked her thoughts flipping back and forth between rage and helplessness but by the time she pulled into her driveway she knew what she was going to do lois was going to reach out to other parents and let them know what was going on maybe she'd even tell the whole neighborhood heck she'd go door to door if she had to if she couldn't get her son transferred out of that school well then she was going to have that school shut down before any more children got sick.
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Of agda in france is famous for sun sand sea and sex but lately life on the coast has taken a strange turn the town's mayor a respected pillar of the community has been arrested for corruption his wife claims he's been bewitched by a beautiful clairvoyant then there's the mysterious phone calls that local people have been getting i am the archangel michael the whole town has been thrown.
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Into chaos as the mayor is unable to carry out his duties i would like to address you all legal proceedings.
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Have been initiated join me anna richardson and journalist leo chic for the mystic and the mayor as we investigate a story of power corruption and magic binge all epicenter of the mystic and the mayor exclusively and ad free right now on wondery plus start your free trial in apple podcasts spotify or the wondery.
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App the next morning lois felt butterflies in her stomach as she walked down her driveway in her hands was a pencil and a petition demanding that the school be shut down lois walked all the way to the end of the street figuring she could work her way back up the street towards home in time for lunch lois couldn't keep herself from shaking as she forced herself up onto a neighbor's stoop and knocked on their door she almost hoped that nobody would answer but she needed her neighbors to be home and she needed them to listen lois could hear footsteps inside the house and soon a kind looking woman about her own age answered the door lois smiled and then very anxiously launched into this shaky explanation of what she was doing here telling the woman about her son and the pools of black liquid on the schoolyard as lois spoke the woman stayed quiet to lois it seemed like this woman might be annoyed with her and so this made lois even more nervous and she began to speak even faster and then when she was done the woman just stayed quiet lois was convinced this woman would call her crazy and slam the door in her face but then the woman told lois that she also had a kid at ninety ninth street elementary a little girl who was diagnosed with arthritis at a very young age the woman and her husband couldn't understand how their daughter could have arthritis as a little kid and they'd spent countless hours talking over different possibilities but now the woman told lois she wondered if maybe their children's medical cases could be related lois felt a combination of pride and sadness as the woman took the clipboard and signed the petition after that lois thanked the woman profusely and let this small glimmer of success boost her confidence as she headed to the next house a few houses down another woman came to the door this time it was someone who was a bit older than lois and this woman would tell lois that her own daughter who was in her twenties had recently had a miscarriage and the daughter's seemingly healthy young husband had had a fatal heart attack soon after the miscarriage and so the older woman did not need much convincing to also sign lois's petition by the time lois was just halfway down the street her petition was completely full of signatures and so lois was more convinced than ever that there was something wrong with this neighborhood and it needed to be stopped a few months after lois got her petition signed by basically everybody in the neighborhood reporter mike brown waited behind one of the trees just outside of city hall he'd done this every morning since early april and now it was almost summer as mike sipped his morning coffee and enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun on his face he noticed the mayor walking from the parking lot to the front steps of city hall and so mike headed over to cut him off like he'd done on many mornings before this mike started pelting the mayor with questions about the sludge puddles around ninety ninth elementary school and and the oozing basements and flooded backyards that he documented that spring and as always the mayor told mike that all those issues were just a nuisance and not serious health problems and then the mayor ducked inside his office at city hall where mike could no longer follow him mike had expected the morning to go this way he just wanted to annoy the mayor and keep the issue in front of him maybe if he badgered the mayor enough the man would slip up or maybe finally agree to actually talk about these issues after ambushing the mayor mike walked across the street from city hall to a diner he walked in through the front door and took a seat at the bar breathing in the smell of fresh pancakes a waitress was working the register she asked mike if he'd like the usual and mike said yes the waitress brought him a fresh cup of coffee then as usual she moved the phone from behind the counter to within reach of mike mike thanked her then used the phone to dial the niagara county health department at this point he knew the number by heart a familiar voice picked up on the other line mike didn't know the receptionist by name but after months of calling and calling he certainly recognized her voice and she knew it was mike immediately she wished him good luck and then transferred him to her boss before he even had to ask and as usual her boss the health department official who answered the phone told mike that the smell and the collecting pools of black liquid were not a health concern to mike it just seemed like the mayor and the health department were in cahoots mike hung up and dialed another number this time it was for the hooker chemical company which was an industrial company that used to own the land that was adjacent to ninety ninth street mike had already approached hooker chemical through more formal channels and company officials always told him that the black ooze flooding yards all over the neighborhood was not their responsibility and other than that they just refused to comment so now mike just called them every morning to remind them that he was not going away and neither was this problem by the time the receptionist at hooker chemical hung up on mike a plate of eggs and toast had arrived mike thanked the waitress then drenched his eggs in tabasco sauce and began to eat as he ate mike barely noticed the neon orange piece of paper sliding onto the bar right next to him he looked up to see a woman with brown hair and big glasses holding a stack of these orange pieces of paper they were flyers he smiled and grabbed the piece of paper she had just slid over to him before he could read the flyer the woman introduced herself as lois gibbs and said she knew who he was she had read his articles in the paper she told mike about her son and her neighbors all of whom she believed had been made sick by the foul oily liquid that he had written about in those articles she invited mike to a community meeting that evening where she and her neighbors would be speaking up about this issue mike immediately liked lois she seemed like someone who usually tried to blend in but she had clearly found her voice because she had to mike looked down at the flyer and saw there were dates for several other meetings in addition to the one that was happening that night mike was very impressed it was clear this woman was highly organized and so after months of working this case alone mike suddenly felt a surge of energy he thanked lois and promised her that he would be there that night that night mike pulled up outside of a church that was in the next town over from niagara falls mike walked into the back of the church then followed a few people downstairs into a big cinder block room with bright overhead lighting along the wall was a folding table that had some coffee and a few boxes of homemade cookies the neon orange flyer said tonight's speakers would discuss a nearby industrial dump site for chemical waste mike was eager to better understand how these big industrial plants were disposing of their waste in general mike took a seat in a folding chair against the wall and then just kind of kept a low profile he just wanted to listen tonight first a middle aged barrel chested man stood up and thanked everyone for coming in then he made a few announcements before ceding the floor to a young woman mike guessed this woman was about twenty years old she had a determined look on her face as she began telling the crowd about this chemical smell that had been lingering in the air around town she said that this nasty odor was being caused by an old chemical dump site in town that had recently begun leaking as the girl spoke she began to cry because she was clearly very afraid of the fact that she had lived right next to this dump her whole life she would tell the crowd that the area the dump was in was known by the unusual name of the love canal mike perked up at the mention of this dump site's name in all the research he'd done in niagara falls he'd never heard of the love canal and so the moment the barrel chested man stood back up to end the meeting mike shot up from his seat and nearly sprinted out the door he could not wait to get to his office twenty minutes later mike was back in his office settling in for what he knew would be a long night of research it only took a few days for mike running on almost no sleep to uncover a horrifying history a history that almost no one living in niagara falls suspected everyone knew that it was a factory town with its share of pollution problems but what mike had discovered was far worse than that he learned that back in the nineteenth century a new york businessman named william love built a canal in the area that was meant to be full of water and produce cheap electric power for a city he wanted to build but he never finished the project and the canal just sat unused for fifty years like a big ditch but in nineteen forty two the hooker chemical company bought the old canal to use as a dump site for their chemical waste then mike was stunned to learn that the us military also began dumping chemicals in the canal in just ten years almost twenty two thousand tons of chemical waste was was dumped into the love canal and after that the hooker chemical company abandoned the dump in nineteen fifty three and sold the land to the niagara falls board of education for just one dollar but in order for them to buy it at just one dollar there was a single condition that hooker chemical company could never be blamed for a lawsuit injury or death resulting from the toxic materials they buried in the canal mike could not believe the extent of this cover up clearly love canal is what had made michael gibbs lois's son and so many other kids and people in this area so unwell the elementary school and over one hundred houses were built directly on top of thousands of pounds of toxic chemical waste but mike couldn't help but smile when he thought about the bombshell that was about to land on the front steps of city hall as soon as his story about this cover up was published he thought of his new friend lois and the other parents who'd been fighting to get ninety ninth street elementary shut down and for the first time in nearly a year he felt like they really had a shot at making that happen after mike's expose on the love canal came out lois gibbs led the entire love canal community in banding together and taking their fight to the health department on august second nineteen seventy eight the department of health officially recommended that the ninety ninth street elementary school be shut down more than two years later on october first nineteen eighty president jimmy carter signed a bill to permanently relocate all of the love canal residents to safe neighborhoods even still many of them suffered from lifelong health issues eventually more than twenty million dollars in damages was awarded to the one thousand three hundred residents affected by the love canal which included lois gibbs family as for lois's son michael his illness would actually just disappear within just three days of leaving the ninety ninth street neighborhood and lois would go on to become one of the most prominent environmental activists in the united states and in two thousand three after twenty five years of environmental advocacy she was nominated for a nobel peace prize but even with lois amazing efforts to clean up the toxic waste it had a devastating effect on the community in total between nineteen seventy nine and nineteen ninety six it's believed that seven hundred twenty five people died due to exposure to toxic waste from love canal though their death certificates listed other causes such as heart attacks and cancer but thanks to advocates like lois gibbs and mike brown the hooker chemical corporation was forced to spend almost four hundred million dollars cleaning up their enormous mess follow mister bolland's medical mysteries on the wondery app amazon music or wherever you get your podcasts you can listen to new episodes of mister bolland's medical mysteries early and ad free right now by joining wondry in the wondry app apple podcasts or spotify or by listening on amazon music with your prime membership before you go tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at wondry dot com survey from ballin studios and wondry this is mister ballin's medical mysteries hosted by me mister ballin a quick note about our stories we use aliases sometimes sometimes because we don't know the names of the real people in the story and also in most cases we can't know exactly what was said but everything is based on a lot of research and a reminder the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis or treatment this episode was written by aaron lan our editor is heather dundas sound design is by andre plus coordinating producer is sophia martins our senior producer is alex benedon our associate producers and researchers are sarah vitak and teja pelikonda fact checking was done by sheila patterson for ballin studios our head of production is zach levitt script editing is by scott allen and evan allen our coordinating producer is matub zaire executive producers are myself mister ballin and nick witters for wondery our head of sound is marcelino villapando senior producers are lora donna palavoda and dave schilling senior managing producer is ryan lohr our executive producers are aaron o' flaherty and marshall louie for wondry.
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