Gaslight era left radioactive legacy in Chicago- Leah Lara

       Past  generation's lack of  knowledge and concern for the environment is beginning to haunt us. In the early 1900's an innovative wick was used in gas street lamps to illuminate Chicago city streets. The wicks were made of a dangerous radioactive element called thorium. The waste of the thorium-laced ore the companies used, was radioactive sand. The companies would then give the radioactive sand away to soggy Streeterville neighborhoods to "shore them up." Decades later, the radioactive sand still remains only buried under layers of dirt, concrete, and asphalt. But due to the recent spike in development in the Streeterville neighborhoods, construction crews are beginning to run into this dangerous "forgotten legacy." Thorium can be absorbed into bones and stay in the human body for years. Inhaling it increases the risk of developing lung and pancreatic cancer.

    Exposing a company's wrong doings, and shorcuts and necessary to keep this generation safe. Although in the past people had no idea about the dangerous effects of radioactive substances, we certainly know now. In my opinion people shouldn't even be permitted to live or work in the neighborhoods that are contaminated as it is hazardous to their help. The fact that the knowledge of the radioactive sand was buried within the gas companies long in the past, means that people could have been getting sick for years. Around the 1920's there were factories in New Jersey that used radioactive illuminating paint for wristwatches. The girls who worked in the factory were instructed to lick the paintbrushes with their moths, naturally causing them to develop radiation poisoning. The factories denied any wrong doing or knowledge that the paint was dangerous- or that it was even the cause. Companies need to start valuing human life and well being more than money, and start to take responsibility for their actions no matter the cost.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2014-04-17/news/ct-thorium-radioactive-cleanup--20140417_1_chicago-river-west-chicago-radioactive-waste