The Time The American Government and Chemical Corporations Poisoned my Home Town.
Life is a series of events, strung together they create a string of illumination bigger than what we could have imagined.
I was a swimmer from North County, Missouri, whose home abbuted a tributary of the radioactive Coldwater Creek, and in a hilarious turn of events — my family literally called me a “water baby”.
I loved the substance of water. It spoke to me. Its power, its stillness, its style. Water was my vibe. Competitive swimming gave me a skill of modern importance that allowed me to spend time mastering the very thing that made me happy. Unfortunately, I learned to love swimming while the toxic run off of the Manhattan Project waste poured into our waters in North County. Its toxicity grew, multiplied, and killed our human population over decades. I was a competitive swimmer in this area and the Clayton Shaw Park Area from 7 to 22 years old.
The first time I recognized that this was a problem was in my junior year of high school a fellow swimmer, Mark Finely broke his arm while swimming a typical race. This doesn’t usually happen.
We heard murmors of unhealthy water. But more than anything — we knew we needed to get out of that part of town — it was a social knowledge that North County was not a great place to live, and where Section 8 housing and high African American Black populations resided.
I internalized almost all of what happened to me medically for years. I assumed my current health crisis’ were because I hadn’t been a good enough person, that I was living with the consequences of my choices (religion dies hard).
But now that I’ve watched Atomic Homefront on HBOMax, and followed the latest off the charts radioactive testing of Jana Elementary School *(my elementary school from 1–5 grades of school), I am compelled to write about the health crisis that America has created.
I’ve also lost friends. And time. And health.
Here’s what I can net — Mallinckrodt Chemical // Boston Chemical thought they could buy the chemical by product of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings because they were rich in elements (think Vibranium from Black Panther).
They didn’t know how to handle these elements and started separating and then storing them illegally — allowing run off into the water of the general America Public. This directly affected Americans via Coldwater creek affecting the North County of St. Louis in unimaginable ways.
The US Department of Defense and other US departments decided to cover this up and create false data to support these high levels of radioactivity. They did this, as opposed to alert people and give them a chance for healthy lives. Now, in October of 2022 they have found off the charts levels of radioactivity in the air, dust, and soil at Jana Elementary, the elementary school I attended 1990–1996.
This is all illegal. This is all criminal. This is all detrimental to human society.
In 2017 — this date — October 28,2017 — I had a late term still birth of my daughter Jane. I was already in the throws of radioactive disease, but we thought she would be pardoned from this trauma I was living.
We were wrong. She died late term, and although she was gorgeous when she came out (classic Swenson move) her placenta forced us to see the horror of what WWII and the Manhattan Project had created.
The placenta I birthed was oddly black, oddly shaped. The entire team at MGH looked concerned. They saved it, they studied it. They said “this is just an odd one off” “Lightening striking twice”. They couldn’t figure that out — or my odd cellular diseases.
All my diseases to date have been called that “like lightening striking twice!”. From my rare brain blood clots, to my rare autoimmune diseases, to my rare Smouldering Myeloma, the only thing that keeps coming up is this — North County, Missouri.
Coldwater Creek.
Now what is the point of all this?
It is that the people of North County have been fighting this for years and the American Government has been the only one place to push.
But I also believe Mallinckrodt chemical — you owe us more. Your brand mission is “Managing Complexity, Improving lives.”
So do it. Manage the Complexity. Improve lives.
Work with the American government and Boston Chemical to clean up, relocate and pay for medical care for the people you poisoned in North County.
And to the people of St. Louis — stop continuing your racist actions against North County. If this had been in Ladue or Clayton you would be up in arms. But St. Louis is the most racist place I’ve ever lived and shame on you all for not fighting for this part of town.
It’s time to get loud and support — and not just from the North County Moms group — we need EVERYONE to support this.
We want MEDICAL CARE. RELOCATION. RECOGNITION OF POISONING.
To my media and entertainment friends, write about this. Help us. We aren’t the only poisoned water in America, but we are a huge group who were poisoned by America’s actions, and you own the residents a chance to live healthily with their children.
To my fellow NoCo residents — run for office, write, keep doing what you are doing and let us all know how we can help. We are not alone.
With Love,
ESG
