"Black Floridians Await Settlement on Toxic Contamination"

"For close to four decades, residents of Tallevast in southwest Florida lived side by side with the American Beryllium Company, which employed local men and women to manufacture parts for nuclear weapons. Each day, workers inhaled beryllium dust and brought it home on their clothing.

In an award-winning investigative journalism series for the Miami Herald titled "Toxic Town", resident Charles Ziegler says, "You came home, you brought that mess home." Along with his wife, Ziegler suffers from chronic beryllium disease, a fatal scarring of the lung tissue.

Adora Nweze, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People for the state of Florida, says the Tallevast case is only the tip of the iceberg."

Christiana Weidanz reports for Inter Press Service October 28, 2010.

SEE ALSO:

"Tiny Toxic Florida Town Takes on a Corporate Goliath" (Miami Herald)