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After returning residence from his job at a automobile battery recycling plant in northern Mexico one night in 2019, Azael Mateo González Ramírez mentioned he felt dizzy, his bones ached and his throat was raspy. Then got here abdomen ache, he mentioned, adopted by bouts of diarrhea.
The plant in Monterrey the place he labored dealt with used automobile batteries, many from america, extracting lead as a part of the method. Mr. González, 39, stacked the batteries, he mentioned, close to giant containers of lead mud.
Medical exams, Mr. González mentioned, confirmed excessive ranges of lead in his physique; specialists agree that no degree of lead is secure and over time it can lead to neurological and gastrointestinal injury.
His supervisor on the facility, he mentioned, insisted he maintain working.
Town of Monterrey, a three-hour drive from Texas, has turn into the biggest supply of used automobile batteries from america, with regular progress over the previous decade within the cargo of used American batteries to Mexico, in accordance with the U.S. Environmental Safety Company.
The rise in batteries from america comes as a report launched Monday discovered considerably excessive ranges of lead at many amenities, leaving employees weak to a poisonous steel that poses extreme dangers to human well being.
Soil samples taken exterior six battery recycling vegetation in Monterrey in 2022 revealed lead ranges far above the authorized restrict in Mexico, in accordance with the report by Occupational Data Worldwide, a San Francisco-based public well being nonprofit, and Casa Cem, a Mexican environmental group.
Whereas Mexico’s laws stipulate that amenities should take away lead from contaminated soil and could be shut down for violating environmental requirements, Mexican authorities information present that lately few vegetation have been closed.
Mexico’s lax environmental legal guidelines and much more lax enforcement encourages American firms to dump used automobile batteries to the nation, where labor is cheaper and unions are weaker, in accordance with specialists in labor rights and occupational well being.
“Staff in these vegetation are being poisoned day in and day trip, and sometimes with out even their very own data of that,’’ mentioned Perry Gottesfeld, government director of Occupational Data Worldwide. “They don’t get the coaching, they don’t get the tools and so they don’t get to function in amenities which have ample air flow.”
Over the previous 10 years the variety of automobile batteries shipped to Mexico from america has grown by practically 20 %, in accordance with E.P.A. information included within the examine by the 2 teams. In 2021, greater than 75 % of all used U.S. batteries had been exported there, E.P.A. information confirmed.
At recycling vegetation, lead is faraway from batteries, floor up, melted and became ingots which are used to make new batteries.
The world’s largest automobile battery maker, Clarios, which is predicated in Milwaukee, Wis., purchased two vegetation in Monterrey in 2019, and the report discovered lead ranges in soil exterior its amenities that had been nicely above the authorized restrict in Mexico of 800 elements per million. (The samples within the report had been examined and analyzed by an unbiased laboratory.)
At one Clarios plant, a soil pattern confirmed lead ranges of 15,000 elements per million, whereas on the different Clarios facility, a pattern confirmed 3,800 elements per million of lead.
Clarios closed its final U.S.-based automobile battery recycling facility, in South Carolina, in 2021, following a sequence of fines by the E.P.A. for violations involving air air pollution, hazardous waste and the improper transportation of lead batteries.
Delivery batteries to Mexico would save the corporate 25 % in recycling prices, in accordance with a submitting by Clarios with the Securities and Alternate Fee.
“Actually there’s value financial savings should you don’t have to fret about upgrading your facility to satisfy the requirements which are in place within the U.S.,” Mr. Gottesfeld mentioned.
A spokeswoman for Clarios mentioned the corporate’s amenities use “strict security protocols and we offer our workers with cutting-edge protecting security gear.”
“We work with native well being, security, and environmental authorities to make sure our amenities usually are not solely in compliance, however set the benchmark for our business,” mentioned the spokeswoman, Ana Margarita Garza-Villarreal.
Although Mexico’s federal environmental company has the facility to close down vegetation that violate environmental requirements, company paperwork present that officers quickly closed elements of battery recycling vegetation simply 4 instances for air and soil contamination prior to now 23 years.
Mexican legislation requires vegetation to have filtration programs to eradicate the unfold of lead mud and corporations should present employees with face masks. However some filter programs are outdated or break down, the sporting of face masks will not be strictly enforced and lead mud containers are in work areas that aren’t correctly ventilated, in accordance with interviews by The Occasions with 15 present and former employees at battery recycling vegetation in Monterrey.
Óscar Nuñez, 32, mentioned he labored at a recycling plant owned by a Mexican firm the place the air flow didn’t work nicely and lead mud penetrated his gloves.
“It was like jail in there,” mentioned Mr. Nuñez, who stop after three months over issues for his well being.
Elizabeth Coronado was a nurse at a Monterrey plant owned by Grupo Gonher, the place Mr. González had labored, and was answerable for monitoring the well being of employees in excessive lead publicity areas.
Of the roughly 300 employees whose blood samples she examined each three months, she mentioned a 3rd of them had 50 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood of their system. The typical for battery recycling employees in america in 2022 was 9 micrograms, in accordance with a battery commerce group.
Lead specialists in america say employees whose lead degree reaches 30 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood ought to be faraway from the supply of the steel.
“It’s alarming,” mentioned Ms. Coronado, who left the plant in 2021 and now works at an area well being clinic.
Ms. Coronado mentioned the corporate sometimes gave employees with excessive ranges of lead multivitamins and milk, neither of which specialists say will do something to ameliorate lead publicity. As an alternative, they are saying, the simplest therapies embody giving sufferers drugs that particularly goal lead within the physique and removes it.
Grupo Gonher didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Although no quantity of lead within the physique is secure, ranges like these present in employees on the Gonher plant can have extreme penalties, mentioned Dr. Michael Kosnett, an professional on office lead publicity and an affiliate adjunct professor on the Colorado College of Public Well being.
“It shouldn’t be tolerated,” he mentioned. “Among the many most vital long run adversarial results related to blood lead within the teenagers or larger ranges is a documented danger of dying from coronary heart illness.”
As for Mr. González, he mentioned he had supplied to curtain off containers holding lead mud. However his supervisor informed him it was not a precedence.
Mr. González mentioned he was fired from the plant in 2021 as a part of what the corporate informed him was a restructuring. In his 5 years on the plant, he had by no means missed a day of labor, he mentioned, and believed he was dismissed at the very least partially due to the issues he raised repeatedly about lead publicity.
Mr. González, who now works renting music tools for personal occasions, mentioned associates who work on the recycling plant say little has modified.
“There’s numerous venom there,” he mentioned.
Chantal Flores and Lorena Ríos contributed reporting from Monterrey.
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