Clean Clothes Vs. Clean Water”: Consumer Activism, Gender
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
“CLEAN CLOTHES VS. CLEAN WATER”: CONSUMER ACTIVISM, GENDER, AND THE FIGHT TO CLEAN UP THE GREAT LAKES, 1965-1974 Annette Mary Scherber Submitted to the faculty of the University Graduate School in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Arts in the Department of History, Indiana University August 2018 Accepted by the Graduate Faculty, Indiana University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Master’s Thesis Committee Philip V. Scarpino, Ph.D., Chair Rebecca K. Shrum, Ph.D. Nancy Marie Robertson, Ph.D. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As an undergraduate history student at the University of Northern Iowa, I took a United States Environmental History class on a whim. Little did I know about five years later, I would complete a thesis in the field. So many people have advised, helped, and encouraged me between then and now, who I owe my thanks and gratitude. First, I need to thank my supportive, insightful committee members: Dr. Philip Scarpino, Dr. Rebecca Shrum, and Dr. Nancy Robertson. Thank you to Dr. Scarpino, whose expert suggestions and indispensable guidance helped hone my arguments and sharpen my focus; to Dr. Shrum whose careful eye allowed me to create much more concise and clear exhibit panels; and finally, to Dr. Robertson, for invaluable direction on gender, the women’s movement, and navigating the endless amounts of paperwork inherent in completing a graduate degree. Thank you to the other scholars who have graciously given me advice. I owe so much gratitude to Dr. Ralph Guentzel, of Franklin College, who advised me particularly on Canadian historiography. Additionally, to many others from IUPUI, including Dr. Elizabeth Monroe, Dr. Jennifer Guiliano, and Dr. Paul Mullins. I would be remiss if I also failed to mention three other influential instructors from my undergraduate alma mater, Dr. Brian Roberts, Dr. Leisl Carr Childers, and Cynthia Sweet, where I first started diving into the topic of this thesis and public history. Thank you to all my friends and fellow classmates at IUPUI who spent time workshopping initial drafts and chapters: Melanie Hankins, Kristin Lee, Rebecca Denne, Rachel Brown, and Emily Engle. Lastly, I need to thank the Indiana Historical Bureau staff, who encouraged me to intertwine my academic interests with my internship there and inspired me daily as I witnessed their iii work as public historians: Jill Weiss, Casey Pfeiffer, Justin Clark, Nicole Poletika, Chandler Lighty, Dani Pfaff, and Lindsey Beckley. I met many other professionals along the way, without whom this thesis would not have come to fruition. The staff at the Indiana Recycling Coalition kindly welcomed me at their annual conference and allowed me to share my exhibit panels with their attendees. Archivists at the Indiana State Archives, Indiana State Library, Indiana Historical Society, Ball State University Archives and Special Collections, and Purdue University Archives and Special Collections all provided outstanding service as I conducted research. Finally, I owe so much to my mother, Connie, and my sister, Kim. For everything I achieve, the two of them are a part of it. I could not have finished this without their love, support, and help. 4 Annette Mary Scherber “CLEAN CLOTHES VS. CLEAN WATER”: CONSUMER ACTIVISM, GENDER, AND THE FIGHT TO CLEAN UP THE GREAT LAKES, 1965-1975 During the late 1960s and early 1970s, the polluted Great Lakes became a central focus of the North American environmental movement. A majority of this pollution stemmed from phosphate-based laundry detergent use, which had become the primary product households used to wash fabrics after World War II. The large volume of phosphorus in these detergents discharged into the lakes caused excess growths of algae to form in waterways, which turned green and smelly. As the algae died off, it reduced the oxygen in the water, making it less habitable for fish and other aquatic life, a process known as eutrophication. As primary consumers of laundry detergents during the time period, women, particularly white, middle-class housewives in the United States and Canada, became involved in state/provincial, national, and international discussions involving ecology, water pollution, and sewage treatment alongside scientists, politicians, and government officials. Their work as volunteers, activists, and lobbyists influencing the debate and ensuing policies on how best to abate this type of pollution, known as eutrophication, has often been ignored. This thesis recognizes the work women completed encouraging the enactment of key water quality regulations and popularizing the basic tenets of environmentally-conscious consumption practices during the environmental movement in the early 1970s. Philip V. Scarpino, Ph.D., Chair 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: Non-phosphate Detergents and North American Consumers....................... 27 Chapter Two: The Hoosier Phosphate Debate.................................................................... 70 Chapter Three: Activist Letter Writing during the Hoosier Phosphate Debate................. 114 Chapter Four: Public Interpretation of the Phosphate Debate ............................................ 137 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 174 Bibliography ......................................................................................................................... 181 Curriculum Vitae 6 INTRODUCTION Mrs. Robert Kilkenny stood outside the entrance to her local Indianapolis grocery store on April 23, 1970, with a band of other housewives and college students. They represented no formal group, but had recently united to achieve one common goal: to encourage housewives to stop using common laundry detergents containing high amounts of phosphates, which polluted waterways. As morning shoppers busily hurried around them, Mrs. Kilkenny and her recruits passed out handbills listing the phosphate content in the laundry detergents that lined grocery store shelves. They hoped they could encourage other women to stop buying products, like phosphate detergents, that polluted the natural environment.1 Women in Canada and the United States acted similarly as key actors in the environmental movement during the 1970s. They mobilized and flexed their power as consumers in hopes of improving the quality of North American waterways by encouraging the enactment of key legislation to abate phosphate pollution. Women’s actions contributed to the chorus of voices that encouraged federal legislators in Canada and the United States to consider enacting nationwide bans on the sale, importation, and use of phosphate detergents in order to abate pollution in North American waterways during the early 1970s. Canada enacted a nationwide ban in 1970 and consumers began to use new, non-phosphate detergents instead. However, the United States failed to enact a similar measure amidst concerns of officials in many federal government agencies, like the Food and Drug Administration, the Federal Water Quality Administration, and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, that non- phosphate detergents were hazardous to health. Scientists at the National Institute of 1Mary Ann Butters, “Citizens Seek Cleaner Soap,” Indianapolis Star, April 24, 1970. 1 Environmental Health Sciences and the Children’s Cancer Research Foundation in Boston completed studies that suggested NTA (nitrilotriacetic acid), a chemical common in non-phosphate detergents, might break down into toxic substances in waterways. The three major laundry detergent companies, Proctor & Gamble, Lever Brothers, and Colgate-Palmolive, known collectively as the “Big Three,” had already invested millions in the development of NTA. The Big Three had no choice but to halt production of detergents containing NTA and come up with alternative formulas for non-phosphate detergents. To stall or derail the enactment of a nationwide phosphate ban, detergent industry lobbyists attacked the safety and cleaning effectiveness of other non-phosphate detergents in the media. These detergents, developed by smaller companies, used other compounds to replace phosphate, such as metasilicates and carbonates. The combined lack of governmental support for NTA and the rising concern amongst the public about the safety of new, non-phosphate detergents prevented the United States federal government from enacting a nation-wide ban on phosphate detergent, as Canada did. As concerns rose over the safety of non-phosphate detergents, politicians in the United States at both the federal and state level recommended consumers use phosphate detergents instead of new non-phosphate detergents on the market, despite the former’s ill effects on water quality. Conflict arose amongst politicians, environmentalists, and industrialists in states that had already enacted their own phosphate detergent bans over whether to 2 repeal their bans or keep them in place. 2 William McGucken, Lake Erie Rehabilitated: Controlling Cultural Eutrophication, 1960s-1970s (Akron, Ohio: Univeristy of Akron Press, 2000), 101-152; Terence Kehoe, “Merchants of Pollution?: The Soap and Detergent Industry and the Fight to Restore Great Lakes Water Quality, 1965-1972,” Environmental History Review 16, no. 3 (Autumn 1992): 33-35. 2 In the midst of this conflict, women’s