WREG investigates environmental pollution, lead poisoning

A months-long investigation by WREG mapped out the deadly problems families in the Mid-South region are most likely to face.

From gun violence and drugs to finding out who is most at risk for cancer, News Channel 3 researchers uncovered countless health issues facing our community.

We have discovered great dangers and hidden dangers in our homes and in the air we breathe that are not only making us sick, but killing us.

WREG also discovered data showing that the likelihood of your life being shortened is greater depending on where you live.

Yolonda Spinks was born and raised in South Memphis, in a village in a community she still calls home.

“As I say this community is a part of my life, like my cousins ​​grew up here, my sisters and brothers,” Spinks said.

She remembered moments from her childhood in Riverview Park, where we sat on a park bench and talked.

“Just think about it, going to the community center, playing in the park,” Spinks said.

Within miles of the same community in South Memphis, you can see industrial businesses located close to homes, schools and parks.

Spinks explained, “I never knew about air pollution, I didn’t know that all the railroads in our community were noise pollution. I just didn’t put two and two together, like this is my community. Sometimes it didn’t smell nice, it smelled like rotten eggs or something.”

Spinks said it was normal to grow up with it.

“Nobody really talked about it. It was just there,” Spinks added.

Today, Spinks uses her voice to sound the alarm as an environmental justice advocate. She is the communications director for Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP).

“This is not a coincidence, this is not an accident. Pollution in this community kills people. It kills my people!” Spinks said.

According to data from the Environmental Protection Agency, there are 85 toxic waste disposal sites in Shelby County.

When we look more closely at the toxicity of the chemicals and the potential health effects of long-term exposure, we see that nearly half of the region’s toxic chemicals are released in southwestern Shelby County and south and north Memphis.

That also applies to the same community where WREG shared that park bench with Spinks.

“I should be able to breathe clean air, drink clean water and have clean soil regardless of my zip code,” Spinks said.

Click here for more information about toxic substances released into your environment.

Patrick Anderson is an attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center.

He told WREG, “There are more polluters in southwest Memphis than you would expect in most major cities.”

SELC began working with MCAP advocates during their fight against the Byhalia Pipeline and most recently against Sterilization Services of Tennessee.

Sterilization Services closed its doors this spring after nearly 50 years in South Memphis, where it was emitting ethylene oxide, a carcinogen linked to lymphoma, leukemia, stomach and breast cancer.

South Memphis plant that used toxic chemicals closes

“We looked at the tools that the EPA puts out and found that communities in Memphis face some of the highest cancer risks from toxic air pollution in the country,” Anderson explained.

Researchers at News Channel 3 studied some of the same data showing that the risk of cancer from air pollution is extraordinarily high in poor, predominantly black communities in Memphis.

Anderson explained, “When you see that 99th percentile, it means your risk of cancer is greater than all but 1 percent of communities in the country.”

Enter your address to see how your community compares to others

“You have generations of family members dying from multiple types of cancer. Some people have more than one type of cancer at the same time,” said Spinks, who lost her own mother to stomach cancer, she said, more than 12 years ago.

Spinks added: “I often hear people say, ‘Oh, cancer runs in my family.’ Cancer doesn’t run in your family, the community that you all grew up in and live in is a common denominator!”

According to research by WREG, where you live determines how long you live.

Dr. Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department, is a pediatrician by profession.

“When a child is born in Shelby County, and frankly in many other places around the country, the child has different choices depending on who they are born to,” Taylor said.

According to her, the data in the birth chart confirm the prediction of life expectancy at birth.

Taylor explained: “In some zip codes and census tracts, there’s a 20-year difference in life expectancy depending on where that child goes.”

But long before heart disease, diabetes or even gun violence can kill someone, Taylor says, children face immediate dangers that can shorten their lifespan.

She continued, “Do they live in an older home where the lead service lines haven’t been replaced? Right. That means there could be lead in the water that they’re using in their tap water. Is there peeling lead paint in the house?”

There are more questions than answers for Alisha Warr today after a test on her 2-year-old daughter Natalie revealed the toddler, who also has autism, had elevated lead levels in her blood.

“Is she going to be OK, how long does it take for the lead to be out of her system? I want to know where she came in contact with the lead,” Warr said.

Warr shared Natalie’s results with WREG, which showed the values ​​were more than double what is considered acceptable.

Warr asked questions like, “Are my baby’s organs going to fail? How will this affect her?”

Natalie’s treatment consists of taking multivitamin/iron drops and getting retested.

Warr, her husband and their four children live in a recently renovated house in the Alcy-Ball neighborhood, but lived for many years in a 1940s house nearby.

Warr doesn’t know how the tip got into little Natalie’s system.

Children living in older homes built before 1978, when lead paint was banned in the United States, are at greater risk for lead poisoning.

“This is something serious, very serious,” Warr said.

Since 2019, the Department of Housing and Urban Development has awarded the city of Memphis and Shelby County more than $10 million to remove lead paint from homes.

According to HUD, just under 200 homes have been remediated.

That number is just a fraction of the more than 200,000 homes built in Memphis before 1978.

Spinks told WREG investigators: “Ultimately, this is about the community. This is about people’s lives.

Ensuring more families live healthier, longer lives requires a conscious effort to eliminate decades of policies that have gotten our community where it is today, Spinks said.

Spinks continued: “Now that we know the implications of all these toxins for humans, what are we going to do to change the look of Memphis?”

One of the latest concerns for MCAP is xAI, Elon Musk’s supercomputer coming to Memphis.

“MCAP’s concerns about xAI’s plans are multifaceted, the most alarming issue being that xAI has made plans with our public utility MLGW and our Memphis Chamber, but has failed to meet with our community here. The community that will bear the brunt of the environmental impact of this facility. We are concerned about how this corporation has been able to bypass all the levers of governance and oversight provided by the MLGW Board of Commissioners and our City Council,” said MCAP President KeShaun Pearson.

xAI supercomputer may require 1 million gallons of water and lots of power, group says

Pearson added: “A facility of this size requires the equivalent amount of power for 100,000 homes and 1 million gallons of water from our Memphis Sands Aquifer. We are concerned about how that will impact the pollution clouds going into our aquifer and the integrity of our electrical grid which has proven inadequate with rising climate temperatures, with over 5,000 homes without power due to the strain of increased A/C use.”

MLGW Director Shares Numbers Behind Memphis xAI Supercomputer

Resources for your family

Do you live in an older home in Memphis and are concerned about lead in your home? Request a Healthy Home Assessment here or call (901) 636-LEAD.

Shelby County residents can register using this form.

Shelby County Public Health Department Lead Poisoning Prevention Program