摘要：

Anniston, Alabama, lies in the southernmost reaches of the Appalachian range, where the mountains merge with the Deep South's old cotton belt. Here in the 1870s entrepreneurs from Britain and the northern United States founded a private company town to produce iron. Later Anniston became a New South industrial city, attracting workers such as African American sharecroppers from the Black Belt of Alabama, whites from the highlands, and European immigrants. During World War I two newcomers arrived-the chemical industry, in the form of the Theodore Swann Company; and the military, at Camp McClellan- and provided jobs. In 1929 Swann manufactured the first polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a seemingly miraculous flame retardant used in electrical transformers and other industries. Monsanto Company bought Swann in the mid-1930s and continued PCB production. With the advent of World War II, McClellan was raised to fort status, and a new military facility, the Anniston Army Depot, was constructed west of town. Over the years waste streams from the military and industry silently contaminated the land, air, water, and bodies of Anniston citizens.

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