Cynthia L., PA

I moved into a five story York Housing Authority run low-income senior and disability apartment building (75 apartments) in August of 2012. We have a sister property next door consisting of townhouses for low-income families with children and another a couple miles down the road.

Three Mile Island Nuclear Plant is less than five miles from us as the crow flies. Our units are 30-years-old; we have nasty water, inept maintenance, and since I have been here, I have been watching residents being diagnosed and dying of lung cancer at an alarming rate—eight in our building this year so far.

I was in Middletown, PA during the partial nuclear meltdown accident of 1979 and pregnant, so I was evacuated.  My neighbor worked there, so I am aware of all that went on during the crisis. He died less than six months later from radiation poisoning. My sister lives closer than I do and has cancers; my children were born with defects... it scares me.