The Largest Mass Poisoning in History




Generation Anthropocene show

Summary: In the mid-1980s, a small problem began to surface in a relatively obscure corner of the world. In 1994, just about a decade later, the World Health Organization published a statement that this little problem had developed into "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history." On today's show, we speak to the doctors, epidemiologists, and geologists who helped hunt down the origin of this tragic event. Join us as we venture through the human body and through geologic history to uncover the twists and turns and remarkable coincidences responsible for this ongoing epidemic.