Companies and others responsible for some of America’s most toxic waste sites are using a federal health agency’s faulty reports to save money on cleanups, defend against lawsuits and deny victims compensation, a Reuters investigation found. A Missouri neighborhood’s tale.
When they bought their homes in the Spanish Village neighborhood northwest of St. Louis, many residents had no idea a radioactive landfill sat less than a mile away.
Health conditions mounted over the years, suggesting something wasn’t right.
Reuters reporters tracked down current or former residents of half of the neighborhood’s 92 homes. At least 33 of those people have been diagnosed since the 1980s with types of cancer that have been linked to radiation.
Standing in front of her own home, Melissa Mitchell is surrounded by houses where neighbors died of cancer.
