By AP/KWMU
Lima, Peru – A new study says residents of a Peruvian town where St. Louis-based Doe Run Company runs a metals plant have high levels of toxic heavy metals in their bodies.
Lead poisoning was already well established in La Oroya, the town of 35,000 residents who live high in Peru's central Andes.
But an eight-member team from the Saint Louis University School of Public Health says it found levels of cadmium six times higher than levels in the United States.
Cadmium is known to cause kidney failure and lung and prostate cancer.
The company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.