Peter S. Goodman

And there was a soil test conducted at a preschool there that found 95 parts per million lead.

Let me give you that number again.

95 parts per million.

We tested a school in Ogejo where we found 1,900 parts per million.

Yeah.

Well, first of all, you're talking about irreversible brain damage, especially for children.

You're talking about respiratory problems, relentless headaches, exhaustion, just a lack of functioning.

And that's the lead, right?

And then there's just the reality of you're living in a place where there's smoke and terrible fumes all the time and people are coughing.

It's just a living nightmare.

After we did the testing, our research partner shared some of this data with the Nigerian government, the environmental authorities.

And within just a few days, the five worst smelters in Ogijo were shut down.

The heads of these companies were summoned up to Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, to have a conversation around how they could supposedly make some improvements.

And then they were given permission to

to restart.

Well, you know, it's complicated.

So the Nigerian government has been receiving reports of these health problems going back at least to 2018.

And they got what they described to me as promises to make all of these improvements at these plants.

But when somebody showed me a copy of the actual protocol that these factories had to sign, this supposedly enforceable document, it didn't have...

any of the details of these promises that they claim they got, and it specifically had a two- to three-year timeline for a very vague promise to improve technology at the plants.