Together with Children
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Together With Children is the blog of the Office of Child Advocacy.
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La Oroya and Lead Contamination: Background
March 15
Join people of faith in Peru in an Interfaith Prayer Service and International Prayer Chain for the 11,000 lead-poisoned children of La Oroya. In preparation for this time of prayer next Thursday, March 22, learn more about what has led up to what is happening in La Oroya. This background information is excerpted from God’s Creation: Our Health: Taking Action Together, a four session curriculum designed to forge a virtual partnership between children in the U.S. and a children’s group, CAMBIALO, in Peru.
Jed Koball, mission co-worker in Peru and companionship facilitator for Joining Hands Against Hunger Peru, describes the situation in La Oroya:
La Oroya, Peru, with a population of approximately 35,000 people, is located at 13,000 feet above sea level in the central Andes. In 2005, a study conducted by the St. Louis University School of Public Health, and facilitated by Joining Hands Against Hunger in Peru, showed that 97.2% of children between the ages of six and twelve had levels of lead in their blood surpassing the World Health Organization’s safe blood lead level threshold of 10 milligrams per deciliter (one tenth of a liter). Some children were found to have blood lead levels above 70 mg/dL.
The source of the pollution is a metallurgical processing plant. Operated since 1997 by Doe Run Peru, it is a subsidiary of the New York City -based Renco Group, Inc. The metallurgical processing plant is a unique operation able to reduce complex Andean rock into high quality metals, including gold, silver, copper, zinc, and lead, for sale on the global market.
Built in 1922, the plant was originally operated by Cerro de Pasco Corporation (a U.S. based company). In the early 1970’s it was taken over by the Peruvian State company Centromin. During a 1997 privatization movement, the State of Peru sold the plant to Renco Group in a non-transparent bidding process. It was sold under the condition that the operating company, Doe Run Peru, complete a nine-step Environmental Adequacy and Management Program (PAMA) that would reduce the levels of toxic emissions to measurably safe conditions within ten years of purchase.
With contamination having built up over those 75 years of non-stop operations since 1922, there was an expectation that the sale of the plant would bring environmental change to the town. And change did occur upon turning the operations of the plant over to Doe Run Peru; however, it was not the change that people expected.
Citing increased health problems, residents of La Oroya called for environmental tests to measure levels of toxic emissions in the atmosphere. A 1999 study by the Peruvian Ministry of Health had reported that almost 20 percent of children had levels of lead high enough to warrant immediate medical attention. Yet, Doe Run Peru claims to have invested in making La Oroya a healthier place. A message at their website states, “To date, we have invested over $100 million in facility improvements and $30 million in social responsibility programs, which directly benefit both La Oroya and the surrounding communities.” The company points to reductions it has made in toxic emissions; however, it does not draw attention to the fact that when it took over the plant in 1997, pollution increased dramatically from previous levels.
Read more tomorrow. . .
- Posted at 2:10 p.m.
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