Quickly, before everybody forgets!
Memory triggers
“Smells have a stronger link to memory and emotion than any of the other senses, and neuroscience may know the reason why.”
Source: Discovery.com
In our everyday eating habits, nothing says “DANGER” like the smell of milk gone bad. Even when it’s just teetering on the edge of drinkability, your reflexive response is usually to dump it down the drain.
Imagine what utility workers on Cayuga Island—a residential neighborhood on the eastern end of Niagara Falls, NY— thought when they smelled foul odors coming from holes they’d dug in 2025 while working to install a new water main.
The western end of Cayuga Island was extended years ago with industrial waste and fill from the same companies whose barrels lie at the infamous Love Canal site nearby.
To be continued?
I hope this chapter in the buried waste story of the Niagara region has a happy ending, but you can’t blame people like me of a certain age and residents of that neighborhood for fearing the worst.
At times certain forms of industrial or mining waste can go airborne. Yes, it is not alone in being able to do so, but unlike the onset of some forest fires during droughts, there are ways it can be reduced or prevented. And per a recent court ruling, a needed layer of protection remains. WP notes “ On Friday, a court decision offered some protection. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that air pollution limits tightened by the Environmental Protection Agency under President Joe Biden should remain in force. The ruling thwarts efforts by the Trump administration, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups to vacate that standard and return to a previous one.”. Hopefully, this ruling, which is a life saver for people with pulmonary or circulatory conditions/diseases, and those of us with asthma continues to hold.