UCI Conducting 2-Year Study of Lead Poisoning in Tijuana Children

UC Irvine researchers have begun testing Tijuana children for lead poisoning in an effort to pinpoint sources of the toxic metal in a border city with high levels of industrial pollution and an exploding population.

The researchers say the two-year study of 1,600 children ages 2 to 6 will be the most extensive of its kind in Tijuana. UCI officials announced the study this month.

Lead contamination is considered a bigger health problem in Mexico than in the United States, where most lead-based paints and gasolines have been phased out in recent years.

Children are especially susceptible to lead poisoning, which can cause abdominal pains, anemia and other ailments. In severe cases, poisoning can be fatal or cause developmental disorders.

Jonathon Ericson, a UCI environmental scientist who is co-directing the study, said Tijuana children could come into contact with lead in many ways: by touching lead-based paint on houses or playground equipment; breathing fumes from leaded gasoline, which is still widely available in Mexico; and eating off lead-glazed pottery fired at low temperatures.

Sometimes, Ericson said, children deemed to suffer from “colic” conditions are given folk remedies containing high levels of lead.

Tijuana, a city of more than 700,000, has undergone an industrial transformation in recent decades as factories have sprouted up to take advantage of cheap labor and the recent North American Free Trade Agreement.

Critics charge that businesses also are attracted by lax government regulations. At one notorious industrial site in eastern Tijuana, tons of exposed slag are heaped next to an abandoned lead smelter.

Ericson said he hopes the study, which began May 13 and will conclude in September 1998, will help boost the Tijuana public health system. He also said California’s Latino population could benefit because Tijuana is a major border crossing point for Mexican nationals and Mexican Americans. The federal Environmental Protection Agency is a major sponsor of the study.

“When we’ve completed our research, we will have helped build a public health infrastructure in Tijuana that will be able to evaluate and respond to the potential problems of childhood lead poisoning,” Ericson said.

Analysts said the study could help publicize an environmental issue often neglected in Mexico.

“Bringing out the larger lead issues would be fairly useful thing,” said Paul Ganster, a regional studies expert at San Diego State University who is active in environmental and health issues concerning the U.S.-Mexico border. Ganster said there could be a “high correlation” of lead poisoning with impoverished areas of the city.

Betty Ferber, international coordinator for the Group of 100, Mexico’s most prominent environmentalist group, said the government has sought in recent years to scale back lead-glazed pottery. “The government is well aware of the risks involved,” Ferber said.

But Ferber added: “The majority of the population is not aware of the fact that a danger still exists from lead poisoning. First of all, there’s ignorance. Second, it’s not something that gets a lot of publicity or coverage in the media.”