Radioactive Contamination Detected in a Missouri Elementary School, Former Nuclear Weapons Production Site

According to a recent report by environmental investigation consultants, there is considerable radioactive contamination detected from an elementary school in a suburb of St. Louis where nuclear weapons were produced for and during World War II.

Concerns about radioactive contamination at Jana Elementary School, located in Florissant's Hazelwood School District, were confirmed by the report and investigation conducted by Boston Chemical Data Corp., which had been raised by an earlier Army Corps of Engineers study.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the new assessment is based on samples that were collected from the school in August.

Boston Chemical Data Corp. declined to identify the source of the report's request or funding.

The head of the Jana parent-teacher association and mother of a student at the institution, Ashley Bernaugh, expressed her heartbreak.

She added that although it sounds so cliche, the discovery takes one's breath away.

Jana Elementary School

The school is located in the Coldwater Creek flood plain, which was tainted by nuclear waste from the production of wartime weapons back in the Second World War.

The waste was dumped at locations close to the Missouri River and the St. Louis Lambert International Airport.

For more than 20 years, the Corps has been tasked with cleaning up the creek.

However, the levels of contamination were much lower in the Corps' report, and no samples were taken within 300 feet of the elementary school.

Samples from Jana Elementary School's library, kitchen, classrooms, fields, and playgrounds were used in the most recent report.

Lead-210, radium, polonium, and other radioactive isotopes were present in much higher concentrations than Boston Chemical Data Corp. had anticipated.

The school's interior dust samples were discovered to be contaminated.

The report warned that ingesting or inhaling these radioactive substances could result in serious harm.

The report also said that for the school to get its conditions in line with expectations, a tremendous remedial program would be necessary.

The new report is anticipated to take center stage at the Hazelwood school board meeting on Tuesday.

In a statement, the district stated that it will consult with its lawyers and experts to decide the next course of action.

Safety is unquestionably the top priority for both staff and students, according to board president Betsy Rachel, who made this statement on Saturday.

Following the receipt of a copy via a Freedom of Information Act request, Christen Commuso, together with the Missouri Coalition for the Environment, presented the findings of the Corps' study to the school board in June.

She said that due to the cumulative effects of these toxins, she will not allow her child to attend this school, KY3 reported.

Radioactive Contamination

The CDC stated that radioactive contamination happens when radioactive particles are deposited on, inside of, or near an object or a person.

When radioactive materials are released into the environment, they have the potential to contaminate the air, water, soil, surfaces, plants, animals, buildings, and people.

A person who is contaminated has radioactive substances inside or on their body.

Radioactive material could also contaminate people from the outside, and it can also contaminate surfaces they touch.

For instance, individuals who may have unknowingly carried radioactive dust on their garments run the risk of spreading the substance when they hug or sit in chairs.