Did the government poison a city? Inside the Army’s secret tests in St. Louis

ST. LOUIS (NewsNation) — The summer of 1953 in St. Louis was relentless. The heat beat down on the brick facade of Pruitt-Igoe, the air heavy, clinging to 33 concrete towers that almost seemed to hold the sun captive. Children played outside, the shouts of their games echoing between high-rises.

And then the fog would come.

'My government used me like a Guinea pig'

It hissed from nozzles on vehicles that rolled slowly down the streets. It drifted from rooftops, where “maintenance men” had stood installing them just days earlier, wearing protective gear. A cloud that hung thick in the air — clinging to skin, seeping into lungs, leaving behind a chemical tang.

James Caldwell, who grew up in Pruitt-Igoe, remembers chasing after it as a child.

“It was summertime, it was hot, we’d run thro