Lawsuits allege Sauget sites caused illnesses

For 19 years, Sadie Thigpen, 82, worked as a teacher's aide for East St. Louis School District 189 before retiring. About six years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. Lorine Rencher, 74, worked for 20 years as a cook at the Hy-Ho Restaurant in Belleville before retiring. About nine years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. Both women live in East St. Louis within a two-mile radius of a large industrial center in the tiny village of Sauget. And both are listed in a lawsuit that names 31 other women and one man as having contracted cancer or sustained other physical damage as the result of breathing air contaminated with some of the world's deadliest poisons, according to the most recent of a series of six lawsuits filed in St. Clair County Circuit Court. There are 111 plaintiffs in the lawsuits naming women and men who claim their cancer is connected to air pollution or that property they own is contaminated and therefore unusable.