HBO reveals the devastating impact of illegal dumping of radioactive waste on 'Atomic Homefront'

Original documentary premieres on April 16 on HBO

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Directed by Rebecca Camisa, the impactful HBO original documentary Atomic Homefront, which reveals the long-term toxic effects of nuclear waste on communities, opens Monday, April 16, at 22h, in the channel HBO. Production will also be available on HBO GO.

In 1942, the United States government chose downtown St. Louis, Missouri, to install a uranium processing unit for the production of the first nuclear bombs. Over the next 25 years, radioactive waste from these facilities was shipped to suburban areas north and west of the city, being dumped in a landfill in northern St. Louis. Until recently, however, many residents of the area were unaware that the garbage had become a ticking time bomb. Today, they are living next to 47,000 tons of radioactive waste; and both current and former residents of these areas are being diagnosed with high rates of cancer, congenital diseases and other health problems possibly resulting from ionizing radiation.

Filmed over three years, Atomic Homefront focuses on two communities that demand responses from companies like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other US government agencies. The Coldwater Creek – Just the Facts group is helping to bring more knowledge to the community and healthcare professionals, working towards the region's inclusion in the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act and advocating additional testing and measures in the Coldwater Creek basin. The HBO documentary follows the performance of Jenell Wright, co-founder of Just the Facts, and her struggle to get answers to the dimension of river contamination. The program also highlights the work of ordinary people, including mothers who created the Just Moms STL group and faced the EPA, state agencies and services.

2 COMMENTS

  1. It is very difficult to separate whatever is true (in the establishment of a relationship between radioactive waste and diseases in the population) and the sensationalism of the matter.
    People, in general, will believe anything that reinforces their fears, prejudices and perceptions of reality. In general, they are wrong!
    The relationship between radiation and cancer is difficult to establish, with the exception of a few cases and that the radiation doses were very high and there are no other factors that could confound the causal x effect relationship.
    It's sad to have to watch this wave of misinformation that has been going on for decades!

  2. Correcting:

    It is quite difficult to separate whatever exists……

    ……with the exception of a few cases….

    Very sorry!

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