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Article: Legal Pollution That Makes Students Sick; Sulfur Dioxide Standards Don't Protect the `Particularly Sensitive' Series: BEST INTENTIONS Series Number: 3/4
- Article from:
- The Washington Post
- Article date:
- June 6, 1989
- Author:
CopyrightThis material is published under license from the Washington Post. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Washington Post. (Hide copyright information)
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When Jessica Buckmaster was a third grader at Rothschild
Elementary School last year, she was the school's pollution
barometer, the "canary in the mine," as the teachers called her. If
her lips turned blue, they knew the paper mill nearby was loosing its
pungent gas again. If she doubled over, gasping for air, they knew
it was time to clear the playground of other asthmatic children.
Across the road from the school, Weyerhaeuser Paper Co.,
Rothschild's biggest employer, releases clouds of sulfur dioxide
through a 130-foot chimney known as the "vomit stack." Eleven times
a day, the company opens the stack for a brief burst of pollution.
Until Weyerhaeuser agreed in March not to make any ...