![]() It’s impossible to know what natural disasters will do to buried contaminants, Kanter said. Municipal water providers test for lead but private wells would still be at risk, Brender said. In addition, flooding could transport lead to surface water. Children who play in the dirt are at risk, she said. Tornadoes and hurricanes would be more likely to cause airborne lead, depositing the toxics on soil. In addition, because of global climate change, the areas of the United States at risk of floods may rise up to 45 percent by 2100 due to rising seas and more severe weather, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.ĭifferent disasters can have different effects on legacy contaminants, said Jean Brender, a professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at Texas A&M University who was not affiliated with this study. hurricanes have been more intense and frequent, with 13 of the last 17 years having “above normal” tropical storms and hurricanes, according to a 2012 State of the Climate report. “But if that’s not possible, the solution is not to ignore and deny the possibility that a disaster will reveal it at the worst possible time.” “The ideal solution would be to completely clean up former lead sites,” Kanter said. Low levels of lead reduce children’s IQs and are linked to attention and behavioral disorders, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lead particles, along with arsenic and other toxic substances, were emitted from the plants. Lead smelters, which mostly closed down in the United States by the 1980s, processed ore in a blast furnace to extract the metal. New York and Missouri had the next two highest totals with seven and six, respectively, and Illinois had five. Kanter, a professor of pediatric critical care medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University who led the research.Ĭalifornia had 15 former smelter sites at risk from natural disasters, with Pennsylvania close behind with 14. “The potential for natural disasters stirring up forgotten toxics is huge,” said Dr. Despite a Superfund cleanup in the 1990s, the tornado had no trouble stirring up some of the 9 million tons of toxic wastes left behind from hundreds of mines and 17 smelters.Īs tornado season ramps up, and some natural disasters become more common across the United States, experts warn that storms and floods can bring smelters’ ugly past back to the surface.Ī nationwide study of 229 shuttered smelters found almost 30 percent are located in areas prone to floods, earthquakes, tornadoes and hurricanes. Starting in the early 1800s, people flocked to Joplin to mine lead. “We’re still cleaning up yards every day,” she said. “Trees were uprooted, houses were leveled, everything underground was now on the surface,” said Leslie Heitkamp, Joplin’s lead inspector and remediation coordinator.īefore the tornado, the southern part of this city of 50,000 had almost no lead contamination but afterward, about 40 percent of yards were contaminated. And it also kicked up toxic remnants from the city’s industrial past that are still haunting its residents on the third anniversary of the disaster. ![]() When a mile-wide tornado roared through Joplin, Mo., it killed 158 people and injured thousands.
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