Consumer protection refers to the laws designed to aid retail consumers of goods and services that have been improperly manufactured, delivered, performed, handled, or described. Such laws provide the retail consumer with additional protections and remedies not generally provided to merchants and others who engage in business transactions, on the premise that the consumers do not enjoy a sufficient bargaining position with respect to the businessmen with whom they deal and therefore should not be strictly limited by the legal rules that govern recovery for damages among businessmen. The overarching goal is to protect individuals and the interest of the public in general from unfair and misleading activity in business and commerce (such as false advertising and deceptive trade practices) and scams perpetrated by criminals (such as identity theft and pyramid schemes) that harm a substantial number of consumers.
Doe Run is an unincorporated community in St. Francois County, Missouri. It is located on Routes W and B about six miles southwest of Farmington. This road is future Route 221. The community was founded in 1888, and was named for a nearby creek with this name, which in turn is named for the female whitetail deer. The Doe Run Company, a lead smelting operation which first originated in Doe Run, Missouri was recently featured in Blacksmith Institute's World's Worst Polluted Places because of toxic emissions generated at its current location in Herculaneum, Missouri. According to the Sierra Club, "In 2000 alone, the Doe Run Company admitted releasing more than 2.2 millions of pounds of lead into the environment, mostly to on-site piles of smelter waste and directly to the air. As a result, air, water, soil, and ultimately children's blood have become polluted with lead in the surrounding area of Jefferson County, Missouri."