Poverty forces families to mask contaminated water rather than avoid it

Evidence

From the beginning her husband had complained about the taste of Woburn water. He used to put tap water in the refrigerator because he thought that chilling it muted the smell and the chemical taste. Donna had tried to disguise the taste by mixing it with frozen juice concentrates or iced tea. She and Carl never had much money, so she used to economize by purchasing big boxes of powdered milk and mixing that with tap water. Robbie, of course, drank that. When the water smelled really awful, she would boil it before she mixed in the powdered milk. Still, it had never entered her mind that the water could have something to do with Robbie’s illness. — , Harr Jonathan - A Civil Action, 104

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The household’s whole arsenal of taste-masking — chilling, juice concentrate, boiling — is aimed at making poison palatable, and the mother never once connects it to the illness.
• XREF: Connects to the book’s recurring theme of ordinary people lacking the informational infrastructure to notice slow environmental harm. — connects to: People from impoverished conditions do not always recognize their poverty. — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 21; Childhood poverty statistically cascades into lifelong institutional and health harms.; Affluent suburban families were forced to haul drinking water when suds tainted their wells. — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside:…, 417 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• The wealthy can exit toxic environments; the poor cannot #corroborates (0.96) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1100
• People from impoverished conditions do not always recognize their poverty. #complicates (0.91) — Crews, Harry, A childhood the biography of a place, 21
• Controlling water supplies enables control over the people who depend on them #expands (0.91) — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education, 1527
• Affluent suburban families were forced to haul drinking water when suds tainted their wells. #qualifies (0.85) — Adam Rome, The Bulldozer in the Countryside, 417
• Environmental harm inscribes itself visibly on children’s and workers’ bodies #complicates (0.82) — James D. Kirylo (ed.), Reinventing Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 1108
• Childhood poverty statistically cascades into lifelong institutional and health harms. #complicates (0.81)