Capital Public Radio produced a new three-part series on the birth defect cluster in Kettleman City, listen to it here.
Kettleman City located in California’s Central Valley, a few miles away from the largest hazardous waste incinerator west of the Mississippi. Residents defeated an attempt to add a hazardous waste incinerator to the landfill site in the early 90’s. Nonetheless, they continue to live near a large amount of toxic waste stored by a company that has been fined for breaking the law in their storage practices. The birth defect cluster has brought them to national attention once again, as the try to make sense of what is happening to them and find out what is causing it.
This also seems like a good opportunity to collect some of the other recent press coverage. See other teaching resources specific to Kettleman City here, here (in adaptations sections) and here.
Kettleman City Birth Defect Cluster – Press
- Toxic Town – 3 part series, Capital Public Radio, Jan. 5, 6, 7, 2011
- EPA fines Kettleman City waste dump over PCB contamination, LA Times, Nov. 30, 2010
- Toxic Waste Dump Ruled Out as Cause of Kettleman City Birth Defects, LA Times, Nov. 23, 2010
- In California, Birth Defects Show No Link, NYTimes, Nov. 22, 2010
- What’s Killing the Babies of Kettleman City?, Mother Jones, July/August 2010
- Landfill, Health Issues Flare at Kettleman Hearing, Fresno Bee, June 23, 2010
- Grieving Kettleman City mothers tackle a toxic waste dump, LA Times, April 1, 2010
- Kettleman Birth Defect Cases Double, Hanford Sentinal, March 9, 2010
- http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mothers31-2010mar31,0,33307.story, LA Times, April 1, 2010
Tracy Perkins 
I had no idea that there had been so much press coverage — I guess it takes a mountain of media attention to get a story like this to register with the general public.