Toxic case echoes US Love Canal disaster

The case of sickened students at Changzhou Foreign Languages School reminded many experts of the Love Canal pollution incident in the United States, which resulted in the relocation of numerous families and later became a symbol of environmental catastrophe and a trigger for change.

The trouble at Love Canal started when Hooker Chemical Co used the abandoned waterway from 1942 to 1953 to dump 21,800 metric tons of hazardous industrial waste, according to The Associated Press.

The canal was later capped, and homes and a school were built on top of it. But snowmelt from an unusually harsh winter in 1977 seeped into the 16-acres of polluted ground and chemical waste rose with groundwater to the surface. It oozed into yards and basements.