lois gibbs

Lois Marie Gibbs is an American environmental activist. A primary organizer of the Love Canal Homeowners Association. She brought public attention to the environmental crisis in Love Canal. Her actions resulted in the evacuation of over 800 families

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Lois Gibbs, founder and executive director of the Center for Health, Environment, and Justice (CHEJ), also a housewife and mother of two kids. Back then during 1978, she became concerned about chemical waste in her neighborhood in Niagara Falls. She thought if her children’s unusual health problems and those of her neighbors were connected to their exposure to leaking chemical waste. Gibbs later discovered that her neighborhood sat on top of 21,000 tons of buried chemical waste, the now infamous Love Canal.

She was concerned so she organized her neighbors and formed the Love Canal Homeowners Association. She led her community in a battle against the local, state and federal governments. After years of struggle, more than 800 families were eventually evacuated, and cleanup of Love Canal began.