Families Sue Over St. Louis' Radioactive Coldwater Creek

FLORISSANT, MO — A report issued in June from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services concluded that radioactive contamination in and around Coldwater Creek in north St. Louis County could have increased cancer risks for people who lived or played there. Now, some of those affected are suing.

CBS News reports that situation is all too common at sites around the country where nuclear weapons were built and stored over decades.

"You'll never forget the moment they tell you, 'We found lesions on your lung and your liver,'" Mary Oscko told the network after being diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Oscko, who said she has never touched a cigarette, blames her cancer on radioactive contamination from Coldwater Creek, which sometimes overflows its banks near her house.

Oscko and others are now suing some of the companies responsible for processing uranium at the site in the 1940s and 50s, including Mallinckrodt Chemical.

Federal investigators found that high concentrations of Thorium-230, Radium-226 and Uranium-238 — byproducts of America's quest for the atomic bomb in the 1940s — had leaked into the creek bed from a nearby waste site, and linked the presence of the radioactive isotope to previous findings of higher rates of bone, liver and other cancers among nearby residents.

Residents who lived in the area between the 1960s and the 1990s are especially at risk, the report found, but recent residents also have a higher cancer risk than the general population.

"At all times, the company worked under the direction of the U.S. Government, as did other contractors, and at no time did Mallinckrodt own any uranium or its byproducts," the company said in a statement. "The U.S. Government owned all the uranium raw materials, in-process product, byproducts and residues and determined site locations where work was performed. Further, for decades, the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers have been responsible for and are handling all clean-up efforts on these sites."

Community activist Kim Visintine said in a post to a Coldwater Creek Facebook page that she is pleased with the report's acknowledgement of the increased cancer risks, calling it "a positive major milestone." She has been tracking unexplained cancers and other illnesses in the area for years.

"We believe this federal acknowledgement opens the door for us to pursue legislation to be included in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act," Visintine wrote.

That law, passed in 2012, created a program to evaluate claims related to nuclear testing and enrichment and pay compensation to victims whose cancers and other health problems can be linked to the nuclear weapons industry.

The report doesn't recommend testing or screening for past or current residents of the area because no test exists to diagnose such small, long-term exposures to radiation. Still, if you're worried, experts say, talk to your personal doctor who can determine just what tests are warranted on a case-by-case basis.

The report recommends reporting any new or unusual symptoms to your doctor immediately. Upon request, the report states, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry can facilitate a consultation between personal doctors and environmental health specialists.

The report also recommends signs to warn residents and visitors of their exposure risk, as well as public health outreach and continued clean-up of the site. The Army Corps of Engineers has been working for decades to remove the radioactive contamination.

Read the full report here, or find a copy at the Florissant branch of the St. Louis Public Library.

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