in new york's inner city robin whyatt is researching the effects some common household chemicals may be having on us and our children. two studies in two very different places both measuring hazardous exposures, provide a better understanding of the unseen risks that we all take every day and the consequences those risks have on our health. located in the far northeastern corner of oklahoma the town of picher has a unique landscape. just steps away from homes schools, and playgrounds sit man-made mountains. since the turnf the last century through the 1970s, the abundant underground resources of lead and zinc ore were mined to supply among other things material for ammunition used during world war ii. but along with the lead and zinc came tons of mining waste, creating these mounds, called chat piles, that have always been a fixture in this community. woman: i've lived here my entire life and the chat piles were our friends. that's where your birthday parties were where you had wiener roasts. where you had high-school football bonfires. all those kinds of activities were where we gat