(Wall Street Journal) – New study is among first to examine cancer risk among people exposed to lower levels of environmental radiation

People who spent their childhood in the 1940s, ’50s or ’60s living near Coldwater Creek, a tributary of the Missouri River in St. Louis County, grew up in the shadow of the atomic bomb.

Now, new research suggests they faced a heightened risk of cancer, likely because of radiation exposure from the polluted creek.

As part of the Manhattan Project, uranium was processed in downtown St. Louis during World War II. The nuclear waste was then moved around 15 miles north for storage at sites near the St. Louis airport, where it leached into Coldwater Creek. The area is part of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program for places contaminated with radioactive materials from the nation’s early atomic energy and weapons program. (Read More)