First there is the sheer amount of buried waste dumped before the landfill shut down in 1971 : 46, 000 barrels containing 2.9 million gallons of hazardous chemicals like benzene, methyl chloride, chromium, mercury, lead and arsenic were poured on top of portions of a 16-acre mound of trash that filled the former sand pit, and leeched into the surrounding marsh and woods.
42.
But when psychiatrists investigated the suicides of 27 youths in the Pittsburgh area, interviewing the victims'friends, teachers and family members, their inquiry revealed not normal teen-agers, pushed to extreme action by the pressures of modern society, but severely disturbed adolescents whose psychological problems were longstanding and whose unhappiness had leeched out in a hundred clues that were ignored or undetected by those around them.
43.
Angry at the thought that just as she had accepted the galaxy Talok had turned away from it, she went to confront Grev . The shadow gradually leeched back to her, until she split open the suit Grev used to control the shadow-and found a withered corpse inside, as he had been unable to withstand being a conduit for the Shadow, while the suit ran on its last programmed directives.
