MrBallen’s Medical Mysteries - Ep. 29 | It Came From the Basement

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

When a woman’s five-year-old son in Niagara Falls, New York, suddenly develops epilepsy, she becomes determined to figure out what made him sick. What she finds leads her to one of the biggest cover ups in American history.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Hey Prime members, you can binge episodes 49 to 56 right now and ad-free on Amazon Music. Download the app today! On a late summer morning in 1977, a five-year-old boy ran around the school playground with his friends. It was his first day of kindergarten in Niagara Falls, New York, and the little boy was having a blast. He'd just gotten over a nasty cold, and so now he was thrilled to be feeling good enough again that he could actually keep up with the other kids. But as he chased after them over to the swings, the little boy began to feel strange. His head began to feel really heavy, and also he couldn't really concentrate,

and then the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the school nurse's office. The nurse was looking at him with a smile on her face, but the little boy could tell she was clearly worried about something. She told him he'd had something called a seizure. Now, the boy wasn't sure what that was, but just the way the nurse said it, he knew it had to be serious. Tears began to well up in the boy's eyes, and the nurse immediately told him that his mom was on the way and she'd be there soon. The boy wiped the tears away and tried to put on a brave face, but inside, he was terrified. He wanted to believe his mom would show up and make everything okay again, but at the same time, he

had never felt so strange before in his whole life, and he knew deep down that there were some things parents just couldn't fix. He just hoped whatever was happening to him was not one of those things. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing The Best Idea Yet, a brand new podcast about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with. Listen to The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Now streaming. Welcome to Buy It Now, where aspiring entrepreneurs get 90 seconds to pitch to an audience of potential customers. If the audience liked the product, it gets them in front of our panel of experts.

Gwyneth Paltrow. Anthony Anderson. Tabitha Brown. Tony Hawk. Oh my God. Buy It Now, stream free on Freebie and Prime Video. From Ballin Studios in Wondery, I'm Mr. Ballin, and this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, where each week we'll explore a new, baffling mystery originating from the one place we all can't escape, our own bodies.

If you liked today's story, please ask the follow button to go on a hike with you and tell them you'll supply the water. But fill up their water bottle with sewage. This episode is called, It Came From The Basement. In early September of 1977, 26-year-old Lois Gibbs held her son's hand as they left their house in Niagara Falls, New York. Michael was just five years old, and it was his first day of kindergarten, and as soon as they reached the front steps of the house, Michael broke free from his mother and ran across the front yard. Lois smiled at her son's enthusiasm as she adjusted her oversized glasses and tucked her brown hair behind her ears.

Michael's father was already at work, so it was just the two of them walking the few short blocks to 99th Street Elementary School. And as they walked through the neighborhood, Michael looked up at all the smokestacks that dotted the landscape. He pointed out one of them and proudly exclaimed to his mother that that's where daddy was. Lois smiled at her son and nodded. Niagara Falls was a big blue-collar city full of factories like those, and they were where most local people were employed, which included Lois' husband, who worked at the local Goodyear tire plant. It was hard work, and Lois appreciated everything he did for their family,

even if he always came home smelling absolutely terrible. As Lois and Michael continued their walk to school, a neighbor who was out on their front porch called out hello and asked if the little boy was excited to be starting school. Lois knew this woman, she had a son the same age as Michael, but the best answer she could muster to this neighbor was just a nod and a smile, and then immediately Lois looked down and began fiddling with her necklace, which was something she did whenever she felt anxious. Truthfully, Michael was very excited about school, but his mother was just a little bit nervous to let him go. Michael was an active kid, but he was kind of fragile. He had asthma and a history of pneumonia and painful urinary tract infections, and these infections really made Lois feel helpless because she actually could not give Michael any medicine.

Aspirin upset his stomach and he broke out in a rash whenever he took it. Now Michael was starting school and Lois worried about all the new viruses and germs he'd be exposed to. Lois's neighbor continued to talk from her porch and Lois tried to focus on what she was saying, something about the kids playing baseball that weekend, but her anxiety made it really hard to concentrate. And so Lois's mind wandered and so did her eyes. And as she looked around, she saw kids running up the front steps of the school and she noticed a man standing nearby the school with a few of the teachers writing something down on a notepad and asking questions. Lois pointed at this man and actually asked the neighbor on the porch if they knew who this guy was. The neighbor glanced over and told Lois that that guy was a reporter for the local newspaper, which was called the Niagara Gazette. The neighbor guessed that the

journalist was there to cover the first day of school. Lois nodded, but then also made a mental note to make sure she totally avoided him. He seemed perfectly friendly, but the thought of talking to a reporter made her extremely nervous. Lois waved goodbye to the neighbor and then watched as her son ran ahead to join the other children. Lois felt a mix of excitement and apprehension. Grabbing her necklace tight, she told herself everything would be fine, and then she turned and headed home. A few weeks later, Lois was at home with her sewing machine on the kitchen table, and Michael was at school. Lois was stitching some new drapes for the kitchen window when the phone rang.

Lois rolled her eyes, annoyed at having to stop when she was right in the middle of a seam, but she got up and went over and answered the phone. It was the school nurse calling, saying that Michael was lying on her bed in her office. During recess, Michael had become glassy-eyed and unresponsive for just a few seconds, and he seemed to be fine now, but the nurse suspected he likely had a small seizure. Lois' breathing immediately quickened as she asked the nurse to please repeat that. The nurse reassured Lois that while it was scary that he had a seizure, the seizure was short and Michael was totally back to his normal self now. Still, the nurse suggested that Lois come and get her son and take him to his pediatrician as soon as possible.

Lois could feel her heart racing as she slammed the phone on the receiver and then fumbled with her shoes as she raced out her front door. After getting to the school and picking Michael up, Lois took him straight to see the doctor the doctor gave him a thorough examination and promised Lois that Michael's vitals did look fine and he was not in any sort of imminent danger he said that while it was rare kids could sometimes have minor seizures with no obvious cause. But if this happened again, he did advise Lois to take Michael to a specialist. Lois was glad to hear that her son was okay, but she was still very nervous. She already had to monitor Michael's fragile health, and now she had to also watch out for these seizures too. She just hoped that it really was a one-time thing and that this would not become a recurring issue.

But, unfortunately, the seizures didn't stop. Over the next few months, Lois would learn to recognize when they were happening. There didn't seem to be any particular trigger for them. Michael might be playing in the backyard or doing his homework or watching TV, when all of a sudden, his eyes would just kind of glaze over and he would become unresponsive for a few seconds. Then, as if nothing had happened, he'd just be right back to normal. Every time it happened, Lois rushed to Michael's side, holding his hand and reassuring him that everything was okay, but inside she was terrified. She knew it was only a matter of time

until Michael's seizures actually caused a major problem. He could be playing on the jungle gym and have a seizure and fall and get hurt, or he could be crossing the street and have a seizure and then get hit by a car. And so finally, when it became fairly obvious to everybody involved that these seizures were likely not going away anytime soon, Michael's pediatrician referred Lois to a neurologist. Lois finally got Michael an appointment in December of 1977, about three months after Michael had his first seizure. Lois gave the neurologist a detailed history of Michael's various seizures, and the doctor quickly diagnosed him

with epilepsy, a brain disorder that causes chronic seizures. Even though Lois had been expecting something like this, she was still stunned to hear it. There was no family history of epilepsy. Michael had never experienced any kind of physical trauma that might trigger seizures. She'd always fed her family a healthy and nutritious diet. She didn't even allow soda in the house. And so finally, Lois asked the neurologist, you know, what could I have done differently that could have protected my son from this? But the doctor assured Lois that Michael's diagnosis was not her fault. He said epilepsy can have many causes, ranging from a past brain infection to a genetic abnormality.

But while this was somewhat reassuring, it didn't really actually clarify for Lois why her son developed epilepsy. To her, it just didn't add up. After the appointment, Lois drove to the pharmacy and picked up the anti-seizure medication the specialist had prescribed. As she did, she still couldn't believe this was actually happening. Two months later, in February of 1978, Michael and Lois were back inside of a doctor's office. This time, it was Michael's pediatrician. Lois tried to entertain Michael by playing the game I Spy with him, but Michael just sat on the exam table looking pale and very tired. In fact, Lois had never seen Michael so tired and run down before. When the pediatrician finally came into

the room, he examined Michael and told Lois that she was right to be concerned. Anti-seizure medication could lower a child's energy levels, but Michael shouldn't be this out of it. The doctor ordered a full battery of blood tests, then sent Lois and Michael home, promising to call them with the results as soon as they came in. And a few hours later, the pediatrician would call Lois and as soon as she picked up, he would say that unfortunately he had bad news. He told Lois that Michael's white blood cell count had dropped significantly, so much so that the pediatrician hadn't even known what to do and had to go to a colleague to ask for their advice. And so from

what he learned, he told Lois that Michael's medication could be what's causing this drop, but he also said that they needed to prepare for another darker possibility. The doctor explained that Michael might be developing cancer or perhaps a serious blood disorder. When Lois heard this, she just stood there, frozen in the kitchen. It was like time suddenly was standing still. And for a few moments, Lois just didn't say anything. She just stood there. But then finally, she collected herself enough to ask the doctor how they would know for sure what this was. The pediatrician sighed and said unfortunately he did not have the answer, and that Michael would have to be referred to more specialists to get to an answer. As the pediatrician talked, Lois found herself walking

over to the kitchen doorway and she looked in on Michael who was fast asleep on the couch. He looked so helpless and she had no idea what to do. At a loss, Lois thanked the pediatrician for all his help so far, then she hung up the phone in a haze. At the same time that Lois was receiving this devastating news, a 26-year-old reporter named Mike Brown stood in the driveway of a wooden brick ranch-style home a couple of blocks away, and as he stood there, he rubbed his hands together to keep them warm against the winter cold. Mike grew up in the area, so he knew a lot about Niagara Falls and the people who lived in this town. And as a rookie reporter with the Niagara Gazette, he was more than willing to go door-to-door asking his neighbors for leads on the stories he was investigating. He liked proving himself. Today, Mike was investigating reports of water backing up

into people's backyards even when it wasn't raining. One of Mike's sources said the city had done a lousy job at maintaining sewer pipes and so they were starting to get clogged. This sort of negligence really got under Mike's skin. Mike strode up the driveway of the ranch home and knocked on the door and then waited until a petite woman answered the door. Mike introduced himself and explained that he was hoping she could help him. As soon as Mike brought up what he was investigating, reports of water backups, the woman just shook her head in disgust and then invited Mike to follow her into her backyard. Mike followed, thrilled to finally get a lead on this story. He'd been knocking on doors all morning without any luck. It was midwinter, so Mike did not expect to see standing water

anywhere because there was too much snow on the ground. But this woman's yard looked like a frozen over mud pit. The woman told Mike that this was totally typical, that for years her yard had been coated in muck and in the winter it turned to ice. Mike couldn't imagine how upset he'd be if his own backyard was this bad. Then the woman pointed over to a large circular hole right in the middle of the yard. She explained that they used to have an above-ground swimming pool that was located right there, but a few summers ago there had been so much standing water coming into the yard that the pool actually began to float. So she and her husband decided to replace the above-ground

pool with a cement one. But when they dug the hole for it, the hole had filled up with rancid smelling yellow, blue, and purple liquids. And so at that point, they decided to just stop with the pool and they did not end up building one. Mike asked the woman if he could take a few pictures, and she said that was fine, and so he pulled out a small camera and snapped a few photos of the yard, just so he'd remember it later on when he was back in the office. Then he thanked the woman for showing him the yard and said he would be in touch. After that, Mike grabbed a quick sandwich from the nearby gas station

and then wolfed it down in his car while he looked over his notes. He had originally thought he'd be researching a story about bad drainage, but as he looked at his notes, he was beginning to think that maybe the problem here was bigger than that. He was certain that the strange, stinking liquid the woman talked about could not be normal flooding, but he would need to talk to more people to figure out what was actually going on. Half an hour later, Mike was back to knocking on doors around 99th Street. After trying a few

houses, he finally connected with a middle-aged couple who, after hearing what Mike was researching, said they'd be happy to talk to him. The moment Mike entered their house, he could smell mold. But it wasn't the normal smell of mildew. There was something stale and sort of plasticky about it. A little alarm bell began ringing in the back of Mike's head. Something was really wrong here. The husband, who was tall and had a beer belly, said he wanted to bring Mike down into the basement.

But as soon as the husband opened up the door that led to the basement steps, the smell coming out of the basement was this horrible rancid wet smell that burned Mike's nose. Mike wondered if maybe this was the same smell that the petite woman he had spoken to at the other house smelled at the bottom of that hole in her yard. The husband and Mike began descending the stairs, but about halfway down, the husband stopped and just told Mike to look around. And so Mike would look around the basement, and right away he saw all this thick black sludge seeping in through the walls of the basement and kind of collecting in the corners on the floor. Mike asked the husband how long their basement had been like this, and the man said,

you know, they'd been trying to dry the basement out for about 20 years now. The husband said they had tried everything they could to clear out the sludge, but nothing had worked. The husband also said he called the city countless times to try to get them to help him, but he said nobody from the city ever called him back. This really upset Mike. This couple's living in a house full of this terrible smell and sludge for years and years, and the city had just ignored them. It was becoming clear to Mike that this neighborhood around 99th Street had a problem, and this story was definitely going to be a lot bigger than just a drainage issue.

After thanking the couple for their time, Mike headed back outside, looking forward to take a deep breath of fresh air. But when he stepped out onto the stoop, the smell of mold he had smelled inside the house was now replaced with a different sour smell. He scrunched his nose up and pulled his shirt collar up to his eyes and covered his mouth with his hand. As he approached the 99th Street Elementary School playground, he could taste the sour, chemical-like smell in his mouth. It made his throat sting, which made it hard to breathe, and by the time he reached the playground,

Mike was actually wheezing from this sour smell. And that's when he looked out over the school playground and saw several pools of what looked like oil on the ground. Yet school was in session. He could see lights on in all the classrooms as though nothing was wrong. At this point, Mike was furious. It seemed obvious to him that something dangerous was going on here, and the city was clearly ignoring it. Mike turned on his heels and rushed back towards his car,

anxious to get back to his office and start writing about what he was finding. A few weeks later, in April of 1978, Lois Gibbs, whose son Michael was epileptic and still very sick, anxiously stood in the school superintendent's office. She was clutching a few of Mike Brown's newspaper articles that had just come out that week in the Niagara Gazette. The articles explained that there were all these horrible smelling liquids that were collecting all around the neighborhood right around the elementary school, and so Lois was worried these liquids were what was making her son sick. Despite her natural shyness, Lois had actually called a meeting to talk over the situation with the superintendent. Lois slid the articles to the superintendent across his shiny oak desk,

and she told him about her son's health issues. Even though Michael's health had stabilized and the doctors concluded he did not have cancer, he still wasn't getting better. And so after reading Mike Brown's articles, Lois had become convinced that these black sludge pools at the school must have something to do with her son's illness. Lois told the superintendent that she did not feel safe having Michael on school grounds until these black pools could be investigated by specialists. With tears welling in her eyes, she said that she was worried Michael was going to die. She wanted him transferred out of the school immediately. Across from her, the superintendent kind of dramatically leaned

back in his oversized leather chair, and then a look of forced empathy came across his face. And this look kind of unnerved Lois, and she began fiddling with her necklace again, but she pressed on. She pushed two doctor's notes across the desk, trying to look self-assured. The superintendent looked at her and then looked at the notes, and then his look of empathy disappeared and his eyes narrowed as he told Lois that she was definitely overreacting. All the other students were just fine. The articles were mistaken. There was nothing wrong with the school. Lois tried to stay calm, and so in a sort of shaky but somewhat even voice, she told the superintendent that he was being way too casual

with the health of the students at 99th Street Elementary School. But the superintendent just shook his head, no, that was not true. Then he slid the doctor's notes back across the desk and pointed his finger accusingly at Lois. He told her that he wasn't about to upend the whole school for one sick kid and a hysterical housewife. The words felt like a slap in the face to Lois. She didn't understand how anyone working in education could be so heartless, and so she grabbed her purse and stormed out of the room. As she drove home after the meeting, Lois felt shell-shocked, her thoughts flipping back and forth between rage and helplessness. But by the time she pulled into her driveway, she knew what she was going to do. Lois was going to reach out to other parents and

let them know what was going on. Maybe she'd even tell the whole neighborhood. Heck, she'd go door to door if she had to. If she couldn't get her son transferred out of that school, well, then she was going to have that school shut down before any more children got sick. a trinity of a lifetime. I wouldn't be chasing it if I didn't believe that the world needs this product. In each episode, the entrepreneurs get 90 seconds to pitch to an audience of potential customers. This is match point, baby. If the audience liked the product, they pitched them in front of our panel of experts,

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You don't believe in ghosts? I get it. Lots of people don't. I didn't either until I came face to face with them. Ever since that moment, hauntings, spirits, and the unexplained have consumed my entire life. I'm Nadine Bailey. I've been a ghost tour guide for the past 20 years. I've taken people along with me into the shadows, uncovering the macabre tales that linger in the darkness, and inside some of the most haunted houses, hospitals, prisons, and more.

Join me every week on my podcast, Haunted Canada, as we journey through terrifying and bone-chilling stories of the unexplained. Search for Haunted Canada on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you find your favorite podcasts. The next morning, Lois felt butterflies in her stomach as she walked down her driveway. In her hands was a pencil and a petition demanding that the school be shut down. Lois walked all the way to the end of the street,

figuring she could work her way back up the street towards home in time for lunch. Lois couldn't keep herself from shaking as she forced herself up onto a neighbor's stoop and knocked on their door. She almost hoped that nobody would answer, but she needed her neighbors to be home and she needed them to listen. Lois could hear footsteps inside the house and soon a kind-looking woman about her own age answered the door. Lois smiled and then very anxiously launched into this shaky explanation of what she was doing here, telling the woman about her son

and the pools of black liquid on the schoolyard. As Lois spoke, the woman stayed quiet. To Lois, it seemed like this woman might be annoyed with her, and so this made Lois even more nervous and she began to speak even faster, and then when she was done, the woman just stayed quiet. Lois was convinced this woman would call her crazy and slam the door in her face, but then the woman told Lois that she also had a kid at 99th Street Elementary, a little girl who was diagnosed with arthritis at a very young age. The woman and her husband couldn't understand how their daughter could have arthritis as a little kid, and they'd spent countless hours talking over different possibilities. But now, the woman told Lois she wondered if maybe their children's medical cases

could be related. Lois felt a combination of pride and sadness as the woman took the clipboard and signed the petition. After that, Lois thanked the woman profusely and let this small glimmer of success boost her confidence as she headed to the next house. A few houses down, another woman came to the door. This time it was someone who was a bit older than Lois. And this woman would tell Lois that her own daughter, who was in her 20s, had recently had a miscarriage and the daughter's seemingly healthy young husband had had a fatal heart attack soon after the miscarriage. And so the older woman did not need much convincing to also sign Lois's petition. By the time Lois was just halfway down the street, her petition was completely full of signatures.

And so Lois was more convinced than ever that there was something wrong with this neighborhood, and it needed to be stopped. A few months after Lois got her petition signed by basically everybody in the neighborhood, reporter Mike Brown waited behind one of the trees just outside of City Hall. A few months after Lois got her petition signed by basically everybody in the neighborhood, reporter Mike Brown waited behind one of the trees just outside of City Hall. He'd done this every morning since early April, and now it was almost summer. As Mike sipped his morning coffee and enjoyed the warmth of the morning sun on his face, he noticed the mayor walking from the parking lot to the front steps of City Hall,

and so Mike headed over to cut him off. Like he'd done on many mornings before this, Mike started pelting the mayor with questions about the sludge puddles around 99th Elementary School and the oozing basements and flooded backyards that he documented that spring. And as always, the mayor told Mike that all those issues were just a nuisance and not serious health problems, and then the mayor ducked inside his office at City Hall where Mike could no longer follow him. Mike had expected the morning to go this way. He just wanted to annoy the mayor and keep the issue in front of him. Maybe if he badgered the mayor enough, the man would slip up or maybe finally agree to actually talk about these issues. After ambushing the mayor, Mike walked across the street from City Hall to a

diner. He walked in through the front door and took a seat at the bar, breathing in the smell of fresh pancakes. A waitress was working the register. She asked Mike if he'd like the usual, and Mike said yes. The waitress brought him a fresh cup of coffee, then, as usual, she moved the phone from behind the counter to within reach of Mike. Mike thanked her, then used the phone to dial the Niagara County Health Department. At this point, he knew the number by heart. A familiar voice picked up on the other line. Mike didn't know the receptionist by name,

but after months of calling and calling, he certainly recognized her voice, and she knew it was Mike immediately. She wished him good luck and then transferred him to her boss before he even had to ask. And as usual, her boss, the health department official who answered the phone, told Mike that the smell and the collecting pools of black liquid were not a health concern. To Mike, it just seemed like the mayor and the health department were in cahoots. Mike hung up and dialed another number. This time it was for the Hooker Chemical Company, which was an industrial company that used to own the land that was adjacent to 99th Street. Mike had already approached Hooker Chemical through more formal channels, and company

officials always told him that the black ooze flooding yards all over the neighborhood was not their responsibility. And other than that, they just refused to comment. So now Mike just called them every morning to remind them that he was not going away and neither was this problem. By the time the receptionist at Hooker Chemical hung up on Mike, a plate of eggs and toast had arrived. Mike thanked the waitress, then drenched his eggs in Tabasco sauce and began to eat. As he ate, Mike

barely noticed the neon orange piece of paper sliding onto the bar right next to him. He looked up to see a woman with brown hair and big glasses holding a stack of these orange pieces of paper. They were flyers. He smiled and grabbed the piece of paper she had just slid over to him. Before he could read the flyer, the woman introduced herself as Lois Gibbs and said she knew who he was. She had read his articles in the paper. She told Mike about her son and her neighbors, all of whom she believed had been made sick by the foul oily liquid that he had written about in those articles. She invited Mike to a community meeting that evening where she and her neighbors would be speaking up about this issue. Mike immediately liked Lois.

She seemed like someone who usually tried to blend in, but she'd clearly found her voice because she had to. Mike looked down at the flyer and saw there were dates for several other meetings in addition to the one that was happening that night. Mike was very impressed. It was clear this woman was highly organized. And so, after months of working this case alone, Mike suddenly felt a surge of energy. He thanked Lois and promised her that he would be there that night. That night, Mike pulled up outside of a church that was in the next town over from Niagara Falls. Mike walked into the back of the church, then followed a few people downstairs into a big cinderblock room with

bright overhead lighting. Along the wall was a folding table that had some coffee and a few boxes of homemade cookies. The neon orange flyer said tonight's speakers would discuss a nearby industrial dump site for chemical waste. Mike was eager to better understand how these big industrial plants were disposing of their waste in general. Mike took a seat in a folding chair against the wall and then just kind of kept a low profile. He just wanted to listen tonight. First, a middle-aged, barrel-chested man stood up and thanked everyone for coming in. Then he made a few announcements before seating the floor to a young woman. Mike guessed this woman was about 20 years old. She had a determined look on her face as she began telling the crowd about this chemical smell that had been lingering in the air around town.

She said that this nasty odor was being caused by an old chemical dump site in town that had recently begun leaking. As the girl spoke, she began to cry because she was clearly very afraid of the fact that she had lived right next to this dump her whole life. She would tell the crowd that the area the dump was in was known by the unusual name of the Love Canal. Mike perked up at the mention of this dump site's name. In all the research he'd done in Niagara Falls, he'd never heard of the Love Canal. And so the moment the barrel-chested man stood back up to end the meeting, Mike shot up from his seat and nearly sprinted out the door. He could not wait to get to his office. 20 minutes later, Mike was back in his office, settling in for what he knew would be a long night of research.

It only took a few days for Mike, running on almost no sleep, to uncover a horrifying history. A history that almost no one living in Niagara Falls suspected. Everyone knew that it was a factory town with its share of pollution problems, but what Mike had discovered was far worse than that.

He learned that back in the 19th century a New York businessman named William Love built a canal in the area that was meant to be full of water and produce cheap electric power for a city he wanted to build but he never finished the project and the canal just sat unused for 50 years like a big ditch. But in 1942, the Hooker Chemical Company bought the old canal to use as a dump site for their chemical waste. Then Mike was stunned to learn that the U.S. military also began dumping chemicals in the canal. In just 10 years, almost 22,000 tons of chemical waste was dumped into the Love Canal. And after that, the Hooker Chemical Company abandoned the dump in 1953 and sold the land to the Niagara Falls Board of Education for just $1.

But in order for them to buy it at just $1, there was a single condition, that Hooker Chemical Company could never be blamed for a lawsuit, injury, or death resulting from the toxic materials they buried in the canal. Mike could not believe the extent of this cover-up. Clearly, Love Canal is what had made Michael Gibbs, Lois' son, and so many other kids and people in this area so unwell. The elementary school and over 100 houses were built directly on top of thousands of pounds of toxic chemical waste. But Mike couldn't help but smile when he thought about the bombshell that was about to land on the front steps of City Hall as soon as his story

about this cover-up was published. He thought of his new friend Lois and the other parents who'd been fighting to get 99th Street Elementary shut down, and for the first time in nearly a year, he felt like they really had a shot at making that happen. After Mike's expose on the Love Canal came out, Lois Gibbs led the entire Love Canal community in banding together and taking their fight to the health department. On August 2, 1978, the Department of Health officially recommended that the 99th Street Elementary School be shut down. More than two years later, on October 1, 1980, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill to permanently relocate all of the Love Canal residents to safe neighborhoods.

Even still, many of them suffered from lifelong health issues. Eventually, more than $20 million in damages was awarded to the 1,300 residents affected by the Love Canal, which included Lois Gibbs' family. As for Lois' son, Michael, his illness would actually just disappear within just three days of leaving the 99th street neighborhood and lois would go on to become one of the most prominent environmental activists in the united states and in 2003 after 25 years of environmental advocacy she was nominated for a nobel peace prize but even with lois's amazing efforts to clean up the toxic waste, it had a devastating effect on the community. In total, between 1979 and 1996, it's believed that 725 people died due to exposure to toxic waste from Love Canal,

though their death certificates listed other causes such as heart attacks and cancer. But thanks to advocates like Lois Gibbs and Mike Brown, the Hooker Chemical Corporation was forced to spend almost $400 million cleaning up their enormous mess. From Ballin Studios and Wondery, this is Mr. Ballin's Medical Mysteries, hosted by me, Mr. Ballin. A quick note about our stories. We use aliases sometimes because we don't know the names of the real people in the story. And also, in most cases, we can't know exactly what was said, but everything is based on a lot of research. And a reminder, the content in this episode is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This episode was written by Aaron Lan.

Our editor is Heather Dundas. Sound design is by Andre Pluss. Coordinating producer is Sophia Martins. Our senior producer is Alex Benidon. Our associate producers and researchers are Sarah Vytak and Tasia Palaconda. Fact-checking was done by Sheila Patterson. For Ballin Studios, our head of production is Zach Levitt. Script editing is by Scott Allen and Evan Allen.

Our coordinating producer is Matab Zair. Executive producers are myself, Mr. Ballin, and Nick Witters. For Wondery, our head of sound is Marcelino Villapando. Senior producers are Laura Donna Pallavoda and Dave Schilling. Senior managing producer is Ryan Lohr. Our executive producers are Aaron O'Flaherty and Marshall Louis for Wondery. Dracula, the ancient vampire who terrorizes Victorian London. Blood and garlic,

bats and crucifixes. Even if you haven't read the book, you think you know the story. One of the incredible things about Dracula is that not only is it this wonderful snapshot of the 19th century, but it also has so much resonance today. The vampire doesn't cast a reflection in a mirror. So when we look in the mirror, the only thing we see is our own monstrous abilities. From the host and producer of American History Tellers and History Daily comes the new podcast, The Real History of Dracula.

We'll reveal how author Bram Stoker raided ancient folklore, exploited Victorian fears around sex, science, and religion, and how even today we remain enthralled to his strange creatures of the night. You can binge all episodes of The Real History of Dracula exclusively with Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus and The Wondery App, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.