For advocates of the victims of radioactive waste dumped across our area after the development of the first nuclear weapons, a promised visit by the Health Secretary is just as important as the trip by the EPA Administrator.
'Just Moms' group founder Dawn Chapman: "Administrator Zeldin has the part that addresses the clean-up. This upcoming visit from the Secretary of Health can focus on 'what can we do about the people who have been harmed?'"
Last week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin visited the St. Louis area at the urging of U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley. Zeldin held a meeting at Bridgeton City Hall to hear from advocates and victims before touring sites in Bridgeton and Hazelwood, including the West Lake Landfill.
Zeldin said the Environmental Protection Agency would move faster to remediate the radioactive waste. He also suggested buying out homes, an approach commonly often associated in our area with flood-prone areas.
But Chapman tells KMOX News any discussion must also consider the decades of neighbors who've been sickened by the contamination.
"Where I'm standing in my living room, this zip code, 63043, has an almost 300 percent increase in childhood brain cancers, under the age of 18," she said. "We have documented clusters here."
That's where she hopes Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. can help. Asked if there's a concrete action he can promise, as Zeldin did while here, she said Kennedy should push for Speaker Mike Johnson to allow a vote on the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
"The acknowledgement of the human harm and the potential for human harm that this entire region has faced is so important," Chapman said. "That's something we're very hopeful for with this upcoming visit."