Times Beach, Missouri

Times Beach, Missouri is a former city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States, located 17 miles southwest of St. Louis and 2 mi east of Eureka, Missouri. The town was completely evacuated early in 1983 due to a dioxin contamination that made national headlines. It was the largest civilian exposure to dioxin in the country's history.

History

Times Beach was founded in 1925 as a summer resort. The town was named after the St. Louis Star-Times newspaper, which offered a free plot of land in the area to anyone who purchased a subscription to the Sunday edition of the paper. The town was incorporated in 1937.

In the early 1970s, the town contracted with a waste oil hauler named Russell Bliss to spray the town's dirt roads with oil to control dust. Unbeknownst to the town, some of the oil Bliss used was contaminated with dioxin, a highly toxic and carcinogenic group of chemicals. The contamination was discovered in 1982, and the town was evacuated in 1983.

Health Effects

Exposure to dioxin can cause a wide range of health effects, including cancer, reproductive and developmental problems, damage to the immune system, and hormone disruption. The most well-known health effect of dioxin exposure is chloracne, a severe skin disease with acne-like lesions mostly on the face and upper body.

Aftermath

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared Times Beach a Superfund site in 1983. The town was disincorporated and all its buildings were demolished. The site was cleaned up by the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers at a cost of $110 million. The cleanup was completed in 1997, and the site was removed from the Superfund list in 2001. Today, the land where Times Beach once stood is now Route 66 State Park.

Pronunciation

Times Beach, Missouri is pronounced as "Tahymz Beech, Mizz-uh-ree".

Etymology

The name "Times Beach" was derived from the St. Louis Star-Times newspaper, which offered a free plot of land in the area to anyone who purchased a subscription to the Sunday edition of the paper.

Related Terms

• Dioxin
• Superfund
• Environmental Protection Agency
• Chloracne
• Route 66 State Park

External links

• Medical encyclopedia article on Times Beach, Missouri
• Wikipedia's article - Times Beach, Missouri

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