"Bets Thorkelson's opposition to 3M Co.'s hazardous waste incinerator began in the mid-1990s, when she learned that four moms of boys on her sons' hockey team had breast cancer."

"'About the same time, I had also noticed that many people on my street were starting to die of cancer, including a young boy from a form of lymphoma,' said Thorkelson, who lives in what she describes as a blue-collar neighborhood in Cottage Grove, Minn., about two miles from one of the St. Paul-based mega-corporation's factories.

Her distrust of 3M grew when she received a diagnosis of breast cancer herself a decade later. And it mounted further when she heard about the company's plans to truck in additional hazardous waste to use as fuel for an incinerator."

Lynne Peeples reports for the Huffington Post July 2, 2012. [2]