Pollution kills Juárez children, study says

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Pollution kills Juárez children, study says

Report calls NAFTA traffic likely source

Diana Washington Valdez

El Paso Times

A ground-breaking study released Monday by the North American Commission for

Environmental Cooperation shows that hundreds of Juárez children are dying and

thousands are being hospitalized because of air pollution, citing increased

NAFTA-related traffic as a likely source.

The five-year study -- " Health Impacts of Air Pollution on Morbidity and

Mortality Among Children of Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico " by the

international government agency based in Montreal -- suggests that Mexico's

air-quality standards are not stringent enough to safeguard the community's

health. The study shows that between 1997 and 2001 respiratory illness led to

36,087 emergency room visits by children younger than 5 at two Juárez hospitals,

even though Mexico's federal standard for ozone was exceeded only 14 times.

" Children were being rushed to the hospital on days when no air-quality alarms

were sounding, " said Dr. Matiana Ramirez Aguilar, a co-investigator with the

National Institute of Public Health in Mexico City.

Victor Shantora, head of the commission's pollutants and health program, said

the study is the first to link air quality along the border and the health of

children. It also has implications for El Paso and other U.S. border cities.

" The results surprised us. ... Children are dying and are going to the hospital

because of air pollution in a region that has experienced a sharp increase in

trade traffic, " said Shantora, who said the commission did not include mortality

and morbidity data from El Paso because " we chose to focus on Juárez at this

time. "

In addition to ozone, the study looked at air particulates called PM-10, and it

found significant relationships between the particulates and child mortality.

Diesel exhaust is one of the primary sources of PM-10, commission officials

said.

During the study period, 696 children ages 1 month to 1 year old died, with 231

of those deaths attributed to respiratory illness. As in the case of ozone,

PM-10 levels exceeded Mexico's safety threshold only a few times.

Air particulates " have an adverse effect on young children that are already

susceptible because of their reduced capacity to metabolize toxic substances, "

Ramirez said, while " ozone ... seems to act as an irritant among all children. "

Ramirez said the data also indicated that infants from poor families were more

likely to die from respiratory illness than infants from higher-income homes.

Cross-border problem

El Pasoan Miriam Arredondo, mother of 7-year-old Antonio Valles, said she has no

doubt that dust and vehicle emissions contribute to her son's asthma.

" My son was diagnosed with asthma when he was 5 years old, and he's had problems

since he was 3 months old, except they used to think it was bronchitis, "

Arredondo said. " He gets worse around October and November, and I've taken him

to the doctor three times this month already. My brother, who is 37 and lives in

Juárez, was diagnosed with asthma six months ago. We've had the pollution for

some time, but I think it has gotten worse in the past few years. "

Traffic-related

 

In a follow-up study, researchers sampled the air being breathed by 101 Juárez

students and took air-pollution readings from 28 Juárez schools near busy

highways and border-traffic regions.

" Preliminary results suggest that in asthmatic children attending schools in

close proximity to major roads, traffic density is associated with increased

airway inflammation, " said Dr. Fernando Holguin, a researcher at the Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Alma Figueroa, the Juárez city government's environmental chief, said the study

" is alarming. "

" We are concerned at the number of children who are dying as a result of air

pollution. ... We are going to do what we can at our level to protect the health

of the community, " Figueroa said. " It will be up to the (federal) air quality

experts to determine whether the standards are to change. And if they make them

stricter, they must be standards that are socially and economically

enforceable. "

Beginnings

The Commission for Environmental Cooperation was created under a side agreement

to NAFTA by the United States, Canada and Mexico to address environmental

issues. Commission officials said NAFTA has led to an increase in truck traffic

at border crossings in the three countries.

" The Juárez study is an important example because three jurisdictions -- the

states of Chihuahua, New Mexico and Texas -- share the same air, " said Paul

Miller, the commission's air quality program coordinator.

Shantora said the study suggests that the Mexican federal government needs to

tighten its standards for ozone and PM-10, and take steps to have sulfur removed

from the diesel fuel sold in Mexico. In 2001, more than a million trucks crossed

the Juárez-El Paso border.

" The Mexican officials who have seen the study are open to this, " he said. " The

study is based on sound science, and other border communities, including El

Paso, need to look at it, too. "

Countries' similarities

Shantora said another reason the U.S. side of the border should react to the

study is that the U.S. and Mexican standards for ozone and PM-10 are comparable

in some cases.

The U.S. one-hour limit for ozone -- the concentration considered acceptable for

up to an hour at a time -- is 0.12 parts per million, less strict than the

Mexican limit of 0.11 parts per million. The U.S. eight-hour limit is 0.08 parts

per million, but Mexico does not have an eight-hour limit.

For PM-10, the United States and Mexico have a common 24-hour limit of 150

micrograms per cubic meter, with an annual limit of 50 micrograms per cubic

meter. For PM-2.5, a smaller air particulate, the U.S. standard is 65 micrograms

per cubic meter for 24 hours and 15 micrograms per cubic meter annually. Mexico

does not have a limit for PM-2.5.

Commission officials plan to present copies of the study to Mexican and U.S.

environmental officials and to local community leaders.

Diana Washington Valdez may be reached at dvaldez; For more

information: www.cec.org

 

 

 

 

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