Introduction / James K. Mitchell -- 1. Improving community responses to industrial disasters / James K. Mitchell -- 2. Responses to Minamata disease / Sadami Maruyama -- 3. Environmental contamination, community transformation, and the Centralia mine fire / Stephen R. Couch -- 4. Seveso: A paradoxical classic disaster / B. De Marchi, S. Funtowicz and J. Ravetz -- 5. Long-term recovery from the Bhopal crisis / Paul Shrivastava -- 6. Iranian recovery from industrial devastation during war with Iraq / Hooshang Amirahmadi -- 7. The Chernobyl disaster: Its effect on Belarus and Ukraine / David R. Marples -- 8. The Exxon Valdez oil spill, Alaska / Nancy Y. Davis -- 9. Signposts on the road to recovery / James K. Mitchell