St Louis radioactively contaminated sites visited by Dr Helen Caldicott.

Anti-nuclear activist tours north St. Louis County sites contaminated with radioactive waste, St Louis Public Radio, By STEPHANIE LECCI • FEB 19, 2016 An internationally recognized anti-nuclear activist and Australian physician said the radioactive contamination in north St. Louis County is “worse than most places” she’s investigated.

Dr. Helen Caldicott toured several local sites Friday afternoon, including: the recently remediated St. Cin Park in Hazelwood; West Lake Landfill Superfund site, which contains radioactive nuclear waste dating back to 1940s and ’50s; and the Bridgeton Landfill, whose underground smoldering has caused concern due its proximity to the waste in West Lake.

Byron DeLear, an executive for a clean-energy company, helped take Caldicott on the tour.

“This is truly an historic opportunity for this community to have the expertise of Helen to show up and really start to investigate what’s going on here,” he said.

Caldicott, founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, whose umbrella parent organization International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War won the Nobel Peace Prize, called the situation “obscene.”

“I’m a pediatrician. Children are extremely sensitive to the toxic and carcinogenic effects of radiation,” she said. “I can’t for the life of me understand why the government …hasn’t removed this material, especially if there’s a fire next to this radioactive waste dump.”………

“When you inhale radon, it decays into lead 210 and stays there in the bronchus irradiating just a small volume of cells with alpha radiation, very carcinogenic,” she said. “Radon is one of the most potent causes of lung cancer.”

Caldicott said she will discuss other elements along the decay chain of uranium and “where they go in the body and how they cause cancer” during a symposium at St. Louis Community College-Wildwood Saturday at 7 p.m. Caldicott will be the keynote speaker on the impacts of nuclear weapons development, and will be joined by a panel of other experts. The presentation will also be live-streamed………

http://news.stlpublicradio.org/post/anti-nuclear-activist-tours-north-st-louis-county-sites-contaminated-radioactive-waste

January 25, 2025 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | general, Reference archives

2 Comments »

We would like to attend the Atoms Next Door symposium in Wildwood, MO, with Dr.Caldicott, but are unable to find if permitted to attend in person. No contact info; just Streaming setup. Nearly total lack of publicity.
I worked as PR Manager for Falstaff for 7 years, and find this to probably be deliberate.
Knowing the public apathy and desire to avoid bad news, they will not respond until their grandson — like mine – at age 16, a ‘straight-A and likable student, suddenly finds cancer of the femur and has to have chemo and surgery, and terrified parents and grandparents.
They they’ll say “Oh, what could have caused such a thing?’
Terrence

Comment by Terrence O'Neill | February 27, 2016 | Reply
Unable to find info that I can personally attend symposium. Also, practically zero publicity of the event in St. Louis area.

Comment by troneill | February 27, 2016 | Reply