I grew up in the Chicago suburbs, but my parents are from an area in eastern Michigan about two hours north of Detroit, called the Tri Cities.

Throughout the mid-20th century, the local economy of the Tri Cities was heavily dependent on Dow Chemical, who has a massive facility in the area. My grandfather worked there. He was one of the first people who ever handled Saran Wrap. He also recalls some hilarious stories, like a time when someone pranked the foreman by putting some stuff in the bathroom soap dispenser that turned into a sticky, snotty goo when exposed to water. My grandfather also spent some time working in a facility that used lots of Iodine. His whole body was sunflower yellow when he came home from work, but he says he never got a cold!

Some stories are more harrowing. There were air raid sirens to warn people when Dow was venting something to the atmosphere. If you heard the air raid sirens, you went inside ASAP.

And then, there was the dioxin plant. The Dow Midland plant was one of 9 facilities contracted by the US government to produce Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. My grandfather told me that men in their 40s who worked in the Dioxin plant looked like they were in their 80s. Many hard-working people died young there.

Luckily, my grandfather was never in the dioxin plant for extended periods. He was a skilled diesel mechanic and welder, not a factory line worker. Had he been assigned to the dioxin plant for extended periods, he probably wouldn’t be around to tell me those stories. I’m lucky I got to hear my own grandfather’s stories firsthand; for every person as lucky as I am, there are a dozen folks whose grandfathers witnessed the same horrors but didn’t live to share the stories. I fear that, as my grandfather’s generation leaves us, so too will the cautionary tales.

Dow doesn’t make dioxin in the Tri Cities anymore, but its effects are still being felt today. Read more about it here.