In , chemical engineer Alcan Hirsch, and his brother, mining chief Marx Hirsch, opened a chemical plant where today sits most of the businesses on Irving Ave's north side. In , they christen it Hirsch Laboratories, and later added the mining company Molybdenum Corporation aka Molycorp.
The Hirsch brothers sold the lab in to Harry Wolff and Max Alport, who renamed it Wolff-Alport Chemical Company, but continued their mining operations, and supplied W-A Chemical with the rare-earth metals needed to produce a huge list of products. The plant processed Monazite sand, which, when treated with Sulfuric Acid, separates into the rare-earth Sodium Sulfate, but also the radioactive waste known as Thorium Pyrophosphate. Until , when the Atomic Energy Commission began to purchase the fertile heavy element from Wolff-Alport, and for the full years prior, the Thorium waste was simply dumped into the area's sewers.
From to , tests claimed the levels of radiation in the area were below regulatory limits, but broader tests in proved this was untrue. The land where the chemical depot once stood is now Los Primos Auto Repair and Sale Irving Ave , and - if you ask nicely - the owner may show you the arches where the kilns once scorched apart the Monazite sand. While a single X-ray may subject someone to 10 millirem of radiation, a worker at Los Primos is exposed to about millirem per year per year is deemed the highest "safe" dose.
It is said the site is not a danger to those who visit once or twice, but it's so bad within the auto-body shop, the Environmental Protection Agency has asked that no employee rest on their back within the premises, even though a sandwich of 2 inches 5 cm of steel, 2 inches of lead, and another 2 inches of steel has been laid down under almost the entire block, by the E. My new fanzine, titled Exscind , is now out in a limited edition of signed, and numbered, copies. It contains all new, tantalizing material, including writing, art, and photography.
It's 36 pages, collecting all my writing of the last five years minus my No Echo music articles , a full color cover and photos within, plus art and poetry, all protected by an acetate sleeve. Nonfiction articles, and biographical material, about sex, death, drugs, revenge, youthful stupidity, suicide, utopia, and the godmother of the American occult movement Anne Hutchinson.
