Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1977 after mounting evidence of their adverse effects on both human and ecosystem health, including numerous forms of cancer, reduced immune system function, and impaired cognitive development in children. Once widely used as fire preventatives and insulators for electronics, PCBs were banned by the U.S.
Over a 30-year period beginning in 1947, two General Electric manufacturing plants discharged approximately 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the river. It is also one of the largest contaminated sites in the nation, and possibly the world. And it has been a critical economic waterway for the United States since its founding. Its banks were home to Algonquin-speaking Native Americans long before settlers ever set foot on the continent. Winding south from its source in the Adirondack Mountains, the river’s 315-mile course connects numerous cities, carves out the scenic Hudson Valley, and forms part of the border between New Jersey and New York before ultimately spilling into the Atlantic Ocean at New York Harbor, one of the largest natural harbors in the world. The Hudson River is one of the most important waterways in the United States. This article is the third in our Earth Day at 50 series, highlighting research by graduate students across Rackham’s four divisions-biomedical sciences, physical sciences and engineering, social and behavioral sciences, and humanities and the arts.
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