"In a St. Louis courtroom last month, attorneys geared up for a trial more than a year away that will center on whether 17 children allegedly poisoned by the lead smelter in Herculaneum can prove their ailments deserve compensation."

"The lawsuit is one of several that could involve hundreds of plaintiffs in the next few years.

The trial is slated for July 2013. Two years will have passed since a jury ordered former owners of the Doe Run smelter to pay $358 million to 16 plaintiffs who said they suffered health effects from lead poisoning that the company knew existed.

That award was on top of a confidential settlement reached before the trial with the smelter's current owners, Doe Run Resources Corp.

The former owners have appealed the verdict."

Leah Thorsen reports for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 4, 2012. [2]