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Politics|Sickened by U.S. Nuclear Program, Communities Turn to Congress for Aid
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/us/politics/nuclear-waste-cancer-st-louis-congress.html
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Hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste from a St. Louis factory were
dumped over decades, seeping into the soil and nearby Coldwater
Creek.Credit...Bryan Birks for The New York Times
SICKENED BY U.S. NUCLEAR PROGRAM, COMMUNITIES TURN TO CONGRESS FOR AID
In St. Louis and around the country, people harmed by the drive for an atomic
bomb have been shut out of a federal law enacted to help such victims.
Hundreds of thousands of tons of nuclear waste from a St. Louis factory were
dumped over decades, seeping into the soil and nearby Coldwater
Creek.Credit...Bryan Birks for The New York Times
Supported by
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By Catie Edmondson
Catie Edmondson, who covers Congress, surveyed St. Louis’s radioactive
contamination from three sites, including the banks of Coldwater Creek.
* Published April 6, 2024Updated April 8, 2024
When Diane Scheig’s father, Bill, came home from work at the Mallinckrodt
factory in St. Louis, he would strip down in their garage and hand his clothes
to her mother to immediately wash, not daring to contaminate the house with the
residue of his labors.
Mr. Scheig, an ironworker who helped build the city’s famous arch, never told
their family exactly what he was doing at the plant, where scientists first
began processing uranium for the Manhattan Project in 1942. But by the age of
49, he had developed kidney cancer, lost his ability to walk, and died.
Decades later, Diane’s older sister Sheryle, who years earlier had given birth
to a baby boy born with a softball-sized tumor in his stomach, died of brain and
lung cancer at 54. Her neighbor two doors down died of appendix cancer at 49. So
many of her classmates have died of cancer that a large round table covered with
their pictures is now a staple of her high school reunions.
“I know for myself, I was thankful when I passed the age of 49,” Ms. Scheig
said. “And I was thankful when I passed the age of 54.”
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The Mallinckrodt plant processed the uranium that allowed scientists at the
University of Chicago to produce the first man-made controlled nuclear reaction,
paving the way for the first atomic bomb.
But the factory — and the program it served — left another legacy: A plague of
cancer, autoimmune diseases and other mysterious illnesses has ripped through
generations of families like Ms. Scheig’s in St. Louis, and other communities
across the country that were exposed to the materials used to power the nuclear
arms race.
Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.
A correction was made on
April 6, 2024
:
An earlier version of this article misstated the month in which the Senate
passed legislation to expand a federal law compensating victims of nuclear waste
radiation. The bill was passed last month, not this month. The article also
misstated the location of the first atomic bomb test. It was at a site in
southern New Mexico, not at Los Alamos, N.M.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When we learn of a mistake, we acknowledge it with a correction. If you spot an
error, please let us know at nytnews@nytimes.com.Learn more
Catie Edmondson covers Congress for The Times. More about Catie Edmondson
A version of this article appears in print on April 8, 2024, Section A, Page 13
of the New York edition with the headline: Sick From Nuclear Tests, Families
Seek Out Aid. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
See more on: U.S. Politics
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