-
Doe Run Still Poisoning U.S. Citizens: A Resident of Herculaneum Speaks Out
My posts on the CNN Planet in Peril: Battle Lines program that spotlighted the Doe Run smelting plant in La Oroya, Peru, have elicited comments from a range of people involved in the catastrophe: a journalist, activists and Peruvians whose families live near the toxic plant. As American investigative reporter Sara Shipley Hines points out, the CNN special gave the false impression that Doe Run’s sister plant, in Herculaneum, Missouri, has cleaned up its operations so thoroughly that the town is a healthy place to live. That’s not the case, as people familiar with the Missouri plant can testify. Yesterday in the Comments section of on An American in Lima, a resident of Herculaneum painted a devastating portrait of the…
-
Reaction to CNN’s “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” on Toxic La Oroya Mines
It was with a mixture of anger, grief and hope that I watched CNN’s broadcast of “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” last Thursday night. Fifteen minutes of the show focused on the toxic contamination of the Doe Run Peru smelting planet in La Oroya, which is one of the 10 most polluted places on earth, along with Chernobyl. Peruvian baby breathing in toxic fumes from Doe Run Peru smelting plant; 98% of children in La Oroya suffer from extreme lead poisoning. Some U.S. critics are quibbling that the show was “stunt journalism” interspersed with flimsy reporting, a charge they base largely on reporter/producer Anderson Cooper’s segment on swimming with great white…
