NEWSLETTER

PHOTOS AND TEXT BY VICE STAFF

COMBINED SEWAGE OVERFLOW SITES New York City has a very old “combined usage” sewer system. That means that rainwater from city streets and buildings goes through the same pipes as sewage, so when it rains a lot and the system is overloaded, the pipes spew human and animal shit, trash, and loads of heavy metals and toxic chemicals into the waterways. THE FUCKING WATERWAYS. That’s why beaches are closed after it rains—to prevent swimmers from swallowing mouthfuls of fecal bacteria. OK, fine, we won’t swim, but somebody should tell those guys who are fishing in the East River every day, right? Samara Swanston helped assemble the EPA’s study of “subsistence fishermen” in Williamsburg and Greenpoint. She said, “A lot of people eat everything they catch. For most local waters, you are not supposed to eat more than one fish meal a month. Women of child-bearing age or children 16 or younger shouldn’t eat it at all.” So what happens if they do? They get really sick and then if they keep doing it, they die.
Ferries: They emit 100 times more cancer-causing stuff and 1,000 times more smog per passenger-mile than SUVs.		Harlem Bus Depot Asthma Cluster: One in four people living near the 126th Street bus depot has asthma.		High-Impact Zones: Migratory birds fly into New York’s glass buildings and die.
Ouch! I think I’m ready to go Japanese! They are smart enough to not shit where they eat, right?
DEMONIC TRASH-BIRDS Sixteen thousand feral Japanese ravens feast each morning on the rubbish left in plastic bags on Tokyo’s sidewalks and alleys. Once they are full of trash, they attack grown men and leave lampposts all the way down Shibuya’s main drag encrusted in shit. So yes, they are terrifying and their shit is full of bacteria—but how do they taste? After feasting on blackbird stir-fried with pepper, fried blackbird, and blackbird pie, the governor of Tokyo said: “If there are too many blackbirds, we should eat them. Blackbird-meat pie tastes good. We should make it a Tokyo specialty.”
Suginami Disease: Suginami Waste Station processes 100 tons of waste daily. Suginami Disease is what the residents around the facility have. Symptoms include coughing, dullness of arms and legs, and headaches.		Dioxin in Toshima, Tokyo Bay: The bottom layers of Tokyo Bay are contaminated with various toxins including mercury and dioxin. Mercury freaks Japanese people out because Nippon is home to a type of mercury poisoning called Minamata Disease. Symptoms include vertigo and psychosis.		Tsukiji Market: The Central Wholesale Fish Market is being relocated to Toyosu, the former site of Tokyo Gas. The soil in the future site has shown high concentrations of lead, arsenic, chromium hexavalent, cyanogens, mercury, and benzene.
GROSS! OK, let’s keep going. Who’s next? Amsterdam?

TO BE CONTINUED:
TOXICITIES... | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Next>

< PREV

MORE FROM THIS ISSUE

NEXT >

POST A COMMENT [SIGN IN] Hi, in case you haven't heard, you can now sign up to become a "member" of Viceland.com, which entitles you to all sorts of amazing benefits like pictures and a nickname. Click here to make your own profile. You can still comment if you don't, but you gotta do it all 'nonymously.

Name:
Comment: