EPA testing air for lead after twister destroys former Oklahoma mining town

Source: AP

PICHER, Okla. — U.S. officials plan to test the air in what's left of a heavily polluted former mining town in Oklahoma after it was hit by a powerful tornado.

The tornado was one of several that combined to kill 22 people in the U.S. Midwest and the South over the weekend.

The storms raised this year's death toll to about 100, the worst in a decade and on pace to become the worst since 130 people were killed in 1998. The record is 519 tornado-related deaths in 1953.

In Picher, the devastation has been complicated by dust blown off giant mounds of lead-filled waste left over from non-defunct mining operations.

Miles Tolbert, Oklahoma's secretary of the environment, says he doesn't think the town's 800 residents face an immediate health hazard. But he says more testing is needed to be certain.



Read more: http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jvPc0FOPkqMe4YN8UCgQf0CW622A

...they'd have FEMA to send them some toxic trailers to live in, while they waited for the dust to settle.

Miles Tolert, Oklahoma's secretary of the environment, doesn't think that "the town's 800 residents face an immediate health hazard." He says that "more testing is needed to be certain."

More tests. Tests to determine if there's a danger to the health and safety of 800 people who live over a landscape that is honeycombed with tunnels that have all been filled with lead.

If would appear that the people still living in Picher, OK aren't the only ones suffering from effects to their judgment. The lead might explain why the townsfolk are still there.

- But it doesn't explain Miles Tolert....

K&R!

on edit: spelling