05677
Dec. 14, 2005

Researchers find high levels of toxins
in people living near Peruvian smelter

Blood-level study strikes gold —
and silver, lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, copper

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE — Church-backed researchers working in a heavily mined Peruvian valley are finding alarming levels of toxic metals in the bodies of the people who live there.

        Random testing of children and adults has documented high levels of lead, cadmium, arsenic and antimony in residents of a town that is home to one of the few multi-metal smelters in the world, which extricates gold, silver, lead, zinc and copper from processed rubble.

        This reportedly is the first time residents have been checked for toxic metals other than lead.

        The study is raising new questions about how multiple poisons interact in the body and escalating concern for another town in the region where researchers have found lower, but still problematic, levels of toxic metals in residents’ bodies.

        The plant, Doe Run-Peru, spews about a 1,000 tons of sulfur dioxide and other chemicals into the air above the central Andean village of La Oroya.

        The waste is roughly four times the legal limit in Peru. The plant’s smokestack looms over the town’s poorest neighborhoods, bleaching the mountains white.

        “This report is for immediate action. It wasn’t done for academic reasons,” said Fernando Serrano, leader of the research team from St. Louis University’s School of Public Health. (The plant’s parent corporation, Doe Run Resources, is headquartered in St. Louis.) “The study was done to provide scientific evidence to make better prevention decisions. Bringing down the blood-levels, that’s what is needed. … Something urgently needs to be done.”

        The St. Louis team collaborated with the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta.

        The Presbyterian News Service tried repeatedly to reach Doe Run for comment on the study findings, but there was no response.

        The smelter is the focus of a heated political battle in La Oroya, a town of about 30,000 people in a region whose economy depends heavily on the plant. Doe Run has asked Peru’s government to extend to 2010 its deadline for the installation of better pollution controls.

        Doe Run has said that, if the extension isn’t granted, it may have to close the plant.

        The smelter has been in operation for 80 years. Doe Run, which bought it in 1997, says it has spent more than $140 million on facilities, health and environmental controls, and pledges to spend $150 more over the next six years.

        According to the La Oroya mayor’s office, 500 residents are employed by Doe Run, and many others work in mining-related ventures or depend on income from the miners.

        Churches are among the groups opposing the deadline extension. One who is arguing against it is Roman Catholic Archbishop Pedro Barreto, who is organizing a regional effort to raise money to help clean up valley. The cost of the cleanup has been estimated at $1.1 billion.

        The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)’s Joining Hands Against Hunger Program-Peru (JHHP) is also pressuring the government to enforce its environmental laws.

        The Catholic and Presbyterian churches helped pay for the new study.

        “It is inexcusable, incomprehensible and unethical that … kids (in La Oroya) be exposed for four more years to toxicity,” said the Rev. Hunter Farrell, the PC(USA) mission co-worker who is JHHP’s liaison in Peru. “The first thing that needs to happen is that the city of La Oroya needs to be declared a health disaster area.

        “The second critical need is that the government enforces the environmental promises that Doe Run made when it bought the smelter in 1997. It promised to invest in bringing down the emissions, and it has not done so.”

        The study results will be presented later this week to representatives of the Peruvian Congress.

        Farrell told the Presbyterian News Service that many of the 18,000 children under 18 who live in La Oroya need medical treatment.

        Children younger than 6 years old are at the highest risk for damage from lead poisoning, because their neurological systems are still forming. The consequences of even low-level lead poisoning can range from reduced intelligence to kidney damage.

        Serrano said that every age group in the neighborhood nearest the smokestack had elevated blood-levels of lead, with children under 6 averaging 36 micrograms per deciliter (that’s 30 millionths of a gram per half-cup). He said the average for adults was 17.

        A La Oroya clinic jointly operated by Doe Run and the Peruvian Health Ministry has reported a 13 percent drop in blood-lead readings in a group it monitors and treats for the diseases of poverty and teaches better hygiene and good nutrition.

        Serrano said researchers will report on their findings to every participating family, and collect data on possible contamination of homes.

        Farrell said the research results were good news and bad news: