Government should pay compensation for secretive Cold War-era testing, St. Louis victims say

By JIM SALTER
Associated Press

ST. LOUIS (AP) — As Congress considers payments to victims of Cold War-era nuclear contamination in the St. Louis region, people who were targeted for secret government testing from that same time period believe they’re due compensation, too. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Army used blowers on top of buildings and in the backs of station wagons to spray a potential carcinogen into the air surrounding a St. Louis housing project where most residents were Black. Two men now in their 70s who lived at the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex as children have formed a group that is pushing for financial reparations. They also want a new study on the health ramifications of the testing.