ST. LOUIS –– Two uranium processing companies face a wrongful death lawsuit over the death of a man allegedly exposed to radiation.
Brittney Webb, the widow of Eric Christian Webb, filed the complaint in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Missouri on July 18. According to the complaint, Eric lived and worked around property belonging to Mallinckrodt LLC and Cotter Corporation. The companies processed and stored radioactive substances dating back to the 1940s, the complaint states.
The site, located near the St. Louis Airport in north St. Louis County, was deemed by the U.S. Department of Energy as in need of remediation in 1994.
The site, located near the St. Louis Airport in north St. Louis County, was deemed by the US Department of Energy as in need of remediation in 1994.
| Bridgemasterp via Wikicommons
The widow claims Eric was exposed to contaminated air, water and dirt while engaging in his normal outdoor activities near the sites. He died of lung cancer in 2015.
According to the lawsuit, "on-site sampling at the [airprt], the HISS (located on Latty Avenue in St. Louis County) and the Futura (Coatings Company) Sites found elevated levels of hazardous, toxic, and radioactive materials in the groundwater, soils, and air, in excess of regional isotope background values."
Mallinckrodt and then later Cotter refined and stored uranium from the 1940s until the early 1970s in the area. Mallinckrodt processed more than 50,000 tons of uranium between 1942 and 1957 on and around the more than 20 acre site, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The lawsuit contends the company caused "the release of hazardous, toxic, and radioactive substances into the environment along haul routes and in north St. Louis County, Missouri, thereby contaminating the air, soil, surface water, and ground water along the haul routes and in the area surrounding [the airport] and Coldwater Creek."
The plant was later purchased by Cotter, who also processed uranium and other materials on the location.
Webb is represented by Kenneth Brennan of TorHoerman Law in Edwardsville, Illinois.