Kepone

This container holds Kepone, the brand name for chlordecone, a highly toxic synthetic insecticide that was produced from 1966 until 1975 at a chemical plant next to the James River in Hopewell. The plant discharged its toxic production wastes directly into the river, creating an environmental disaster when it was found that exposure to Kepone caused a multitude of serious physical illnesses. The river was contaminated to such an extent that commercial and sport fishing were prohibited in the James River and its tributaries beginning in December 1975. The bans did not begin to be lifted until May 1980.