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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…
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Toxic La Oroya Mine Profiled Dec. 11 on CNN’s “Planet in Peril”
On December 11, one of Peru’s most horrific environmental and public-health disasters will command worldwide attention when CNN debuts the first part of “Planet in Peril: Battle Lines” (Thurs., 9 p.m. ET). The show focuses on the Doe Run Peru smelting complex in La Oroya, in central Peru, where sky-high levels of lead and other toxic metals have contaminated the air and water, poisoning area residents. (Nearly every child in the town has lead poisoning.) Doe Run is a St. Louis-based company that is part of Renco Group, a private-holding company of New York businessman Ira Rennert. Doe Run Peru is part of Doe Run. The Doe Run crisis has been the subject…
