The Hawk's Nest incident : America's worst industrial disaster /

In the early 1930s, the Union Carbide company dug a water tunnel along a river in West Virginia to generate power for a chemical plant. After extensive research, including interviews with survivors and relatives, Cherniack concludes that over 700 workers died from acute silicosis, a disease little known at the time. From his account we learn more about what happened to the mostly black, mostly migrant laborers, digging a three-mile silicon-laden tunnel, than contemporary accounts were able to provide. We learn of the futility of those long-ago law suits and congressional hearings and of the power of a large corporation (Union Carbide). And we learn of the sad state, back then, of environmental concerns. A highly readable, balanced account; recommended. Daniel LaRossa, Connetquot P.L., Bohemia, N.Y. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.