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The Poison That Fell From the Sky
Story about chemical plague that could end up destroying the world
113 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1977
About the author
John G. Fuller
33 books36 followersJohn Grant Fuller, Jr. (1913 - 1990) was a New England-based American author of several non-fiction books and newspaper articles, mainly focusing on the theme of extra-terrestrials and the supernatural. For many years he wrote a regular column for the Saturday Review magazine, called "Trade Winds". His three most famous books were The Ghost of Flight 401, Incident at Exeter, and The Interrupted Journey.
The Ghost of Flight 401 was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie.
Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965 (see the Exeter incident). Fuller personally investigated the sightings and interviewed many of the eyewitnesses, he also claimed to have seen a UFO himself during his investigation.
The Interrupted Journey tells the story of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. The Hills were a married couple who claimed to have been abducted in 1961 by the occupants of a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while returning home from a vacation. The book was the first to seriously claim that competent, reliable witnesses were being abducted by UFOs for medical and scientific experiments. The book remains one of the most influential in UFO history; and has been hotly debated since its publication. Like The Ghost of Flight 401, The Interrupted Journey was also turned into a made-for-television movie in 1975.
Fuller wrote The Great Soul Trial (1969) about the disappearance of Arizona Miner James Kidd and the later trial regarding his will, which left his fortune to anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul. The book was published prior to the final resolution of the case in 1971.
John was also married to a NorthWest flight Attendant who was the researcher mentioned in his book "Ghost of Flight 401" His book We Almost Lost Detroit deals with a serious accident at the Fermi nuclear power plant near Detroit. The book title was later the title of a song by Gil Scott-Heron on the No Nukes live album recorded by the Musicians United for Safe Energy.
He wrote two plays -- The Pink Elephant, which opened in 1953, and Love Me Little, which opened in 1958, both on Broadway.
His most important book was the fictional novel We Almost Lost Detroit. There is a song by Gil Scott-Heron, same title.
Fuller died of lung cancer in 1990.
The Ghost of Flight 401 was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie.
Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965 (see the Exeter incident). Fuller personally investigated the sightings and interviewed many of the eyewitnesses, he also claimed to have seen a UFO himself during his investigation.
The Interrupted Journey tells the story of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. The Hills were a married couple who claimed to have been abducted in 1961 by the occupants of a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while returning home from a vacation. The book was the first to seriously claim that competent, reliable witnesses were being abducted by UFOs for medical and scientific experiments. The book remains one of the most influential in UFO history; and has been hotly debated since its publication. Like The Ghost of Flight 401, The Interrupted Journey was also turned into a made-for-television movie in 1975.
Fuller wrote The Great Soul Trial (1969) about the disappearance of Arizona Miner James Kidd and the later trial regarding his will, which left his fortune to anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul. The book was published prior to the final resolution of the case in 1971.
John was also married to a NorthWest flight Attendant who was the researcher mentioned in his book "Ghost of Flight 401" His book We Almost Lost Detroit deals with a serious accident at the Fermi nuclear power plant near Detroit. The book title was later the title of a song by Gil Scott-Heron on the No Nukes live album recorded by the Musicians United for Safe Energy.
He wrote two plays -- The Pink Elephant, which opened in 1953, and Love Me Little, which opened in 1958, both on Broadway.
His most important book was the fictional novel We Almost Lost Detroit. There is a song by Gil Scott-Heron, same title.
Fuller died of lung cancer in 1990.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 2, 2017
As I read the book-jacket before diving into this book, I was struck by how eerily similar the description was to what I have read about the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Ukraine. I had to look closer at the date of the chemical tragedy near Milan in Seveso, Italy (it occurred in 1976), as well as when the book was published. This industrial accident took place a decade before Chernobyl (1986), and the story was almost the same (aside from the obvious differences between a nuclear reactor and the chemical release of dioxin, which was used as a defoliant in Vietnam. It is called 'Orange' in the book, so I deduced that dioxin is what I know of as 'Agent Orange,' though I could be mistaken).
What occurred in Seveso was 'a local chemical factory exploded,' or more specifically, the heat of the chemical TCP exceeded the limits of the building's safety valve, which released a noxious cloud of unknown contaminants into the atmosphere that wafted over the local community. At the temperatures needed to release the safety valve, dioxin (a by-product of TCP) was leaked in massive amounts. It only takes a small dose to be lethal.
Just as in Chernobyl, there were delayed warnings to the public about the dangers of the probable dioxin release. Children innocently played outside, swam in the pools, and rolled in the grass, all contaminated. It began with residents not feeling well. They noticed birds falling from the sky, their rabbits and chickens had died, the leaves of their crops browned, and the cats and dogs of the community walked with a swaying gait (I presume to be a sign of neurological toxicity). Finally, people were evacuated from their homes, and the zone of contamination continued to expand. The residents were allowed to take a suitcase of their belongings as they awaited news. Signs of dioxin poisoning began to show up in the months that followed: painful skin disfigurements (chloracne), babies with severe birth defects (malformed intestinal tracts), and liver dysfunction. Examinations of deceased animals revealed extensive tissue and organ damage. The Catholic Church even came out and said that women who sought abortions after the accident wouldn't be excommunicated, though they stressed that all life is sacred, including that of the unborn who likely would be born with severe defects and lifelong health problems and suffering. The Church encouraged women to carry their pregnancies to term and adopt out the babies if they couldn't care for them. One woman seemed to feel a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' mentality because she considered abortion to be a sin, but also thought it was a sin to give birth to a child that would most likely live in pain and suffering. She said she would seek termination to prevent the suffering.
This book, copyrighted 1977, described the accident in detail with focuses on the experiences of the residents of Seveso. The author also discusses his personal journey to Seveso to meet the locals and see the devastation first-hand. Dioxin is an invisible danger, so there wasn't much to see aside from a ghost town, which made it all the scarier. As of the writing, most residents of Seveso were forced to leave their homes and relocate, and were promised compensation for their losses of property, animals, crops, and health conditions. The author wrote about his interview with the higher-ups in the chemical company at headquarters in Switzerland. The answers that were forthcoming were less than satisfactory. I am greatly interested to learn more about Seveso and what has happened in these decades since. I am interested to learn about how the affected population has fared: the adults as they aged, the kids who lived and played in Seveso, the babies who were exposed in utero, and the children and grandchildren of the survivors. I am interested to learn about any legal suits and their compensations, though nothing can replace all that they have lost, as well as any increased incidences in cancer and other medical conditions. I would also like to learn more about how they tried to clean up the dioxin, what the land is like today, and how much the dioxin has spread. Has it affected other areas in Italy and beyond? I feel that this book is a good addition to the available literature to the mainstream about the dangers of chemical plants (and others) that we live near. Living in America and not being born until the late 80s, I had never heard of this tragedy. It should be taught in schools, in addition to other disasters that have wrought so much devastation and turmoil in their wake, as well as lessons learned and what still needs to be done to clean up these accidents and to prevent future tragedies. The author cited "Silent Spring" several times. I wonder if Seveso is now silent, or if nature has reclaimed it (like occurred in Pripyat, to the amazement of many). My heart breaks for the victims of this avoidable tragedy.
What occurred in Seveso was 'a local chemical factory exploded,' or more specifically, the heat of the chemical TCP exceeded the limits of the building's safety valve, which released a noxious cloud of unknown contaminants into the atmosphere that wafted over the local community. At the temperatures needed to release the safety valve, dioxin (a by-product of TCP) was leaked in massive amounts. It only takes a small dose to be lethal.
Just as in Chernobyl, there were delayed warnings to the public about the dangers of the probable dioxin release. Children innocently played outside, swam in the pools, and rolled in the grass, all contaminated. It began with residents not feeling well. They noticed birds falling from the sky, their rabbits and chickens had died, the leaves of their crops browned, and the cats and dogs of the community walked with a swaying gait (I presume to be a sign of neurological toxicity). Finally, people were evacuated from their homes, and the zone of contamination continued to expand. The residents were allowed to take a suitcase of their belongings as they awaited news. Signs of dioxin poisoning began to show up in the months that followed: painful skin disfigurements (chloracne), babies with severe birth defects (malformed intestinal tracts), and liver dysfunction. Examinations of deceased animals revealed extensive tissue and organ damage. The Catholic Church even came out and said that women who sought abortions after the accident wouldn't be excommunicated, though they stressed that all life is sacred, including that of the unborn who likely would be born with severe defects and lifelong health problems and suffering. The Church encouraged women to carry their pregnancies to term and adopt out the babies if they couldn't care for them. One woman seemed to feel a 'damned if you do, damned if you don't' mentality because she considered abortion to be a sin, but also thought it was a sin to give birth to a child that would most likely live in pain and suffering. She said she would seek termination to prevent the suffering.
This book, copyrighted 1977, described the accident in detail with focuses on the experiences of the residents of Seveso. The author also discusses his personal journey to Seveso to meet the locals and see the devastation first-hand. Dioxin is an invisible danger, so there wasn't much to see aside from a ghost town, which made it all the scarier. As of the writing, most residents of Seveso were forced to leave their homes and relocate, and were promised compensation for their losses of property, animals, crops, and health conditions. The author wrote about his interview with the higher-ups in the chemical company at headquarters in Switzerland. The answers that were forthcoming were less than satisfactory. I am greatly interested to learn more about Seveso and what has happened in these decades since. I am interested to learn about how the affected population has fared: the adults as they aged, the kids who lived and played in Seveso, the babies who were exposed in utero, and the children and grandchildren of the survivors. I am interested to learn about any legal suits and their compensations, though nothing can replace all that they have lost, as well as any increased incidences in cancer and other medical conditions. I would also like to learn more about how they tried to clean up the dioxin, what the land is like today, and how much the dioxin has spread. Has it affected other areas in Italy and beyond? I feel that this book is a good addition to the available literature to the mainstream about the dangers of chemical plants (and others) that we live near. Living in America and not being born until the late 80s, I had never heard of this tragedy. It should be taught in schools, in addition to other disasters that have wrought so much devastation and turmoil in their wake, as well as lessons learned and what still needs to be done to clean up these accidents and to prevent future tragedies. The author cited "Silent Spring" several times. I wonder if Seveso is now silent, or if nature has reclaimed it (like occurred in Pripyat, to the amazement of many). My heart breaks for the victims of this avoidable tragedy.
June 4, 2023
I give this book 5 stars for the material covered and 3 stars for the material not covered. John Fuller did an excellent job crafting a narrative of the disaster including the multiple characters and perspectives. This book focuses on the people of Seveso most impacted by the disaster. It does not include specific details of the cause of the disaster or the longer term effects or resolution due to the timing of its publication which is information I would have enjoyed reading.
December 19, 2008
A fertilizer plant in another country puts out dioxin as a biproduct causing great suffering among the people and eventually the plant and thousands of acres of surrounding property has to be fenced off forever. It is something that was happening in many countries at the time (in the 1970s particularly. John has a very powerful way of writing and a good eye to detail. I really enjoyed his books.
October 12, 2023
Love John Fuller. Gets right into the story of the disaster. Well researched and a fast read.
September 17, 2013
True story.
This incident didn't make the news in North America and I cannot think why it did not!
If it wasn't for reading this book I would not had known that this occurred.
Google Seveso and see for yourself how this effected the populated areas around the industrial plant where the 'accident' took place.
Horrible, but true. July, 1976.
This incident didn't make the news in North America and I cannot think why it did not!
If it wasn't for reading this book I would not had known that this occurred.
Google Seveso and see for yourself how this effected the populated areas around the industrial plant where the 'accident' took place.
Horrible, but true. July, 1976.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews