After returning dwelling from his job at a automobile battery recycling plant in northern Mexico one night in 2019, Azael Mateo González Ramírez stated he felt dizzy, his bones ached and his throat was raspy. Then got here abdomen ache, he stated, adopted by bouts of diarrhea.
The plant in Monterrey the place he labored dealt with used automobile batteries, many from the USA, extracting lead as a part of the method. Mr. González, 39, stacked the batteries, he stated, close to giant containers of lead mud.
Medical checks, Mr. González stated, confirmed excessive ranges of lead in his physique; specialists agree that no degree of lead is secure and over time it may end up in neurological and gastrointestinal harm.
His supervisor on the facility, he stated, insisted he preserve working.
Town of Monterrey, a three-hour drive from Texas, has turn out to be the most important supply of used automobile batteries from the USA, with regular development over the previous decade within the cargo of used American batteries to Mexico, based on the U.S. Environmental Safety Company.
The rise in batteries from the USA comes as a report launched Monday discovered considerably excessive ranges of lead at many services, leaving staff weak to a poisonous steel that poses extreme dangers to human well being.
Soil samples taken outdoors six battery recycling vegetation in Monterrey in 2021 revealed lead ranges far above the authorized restrict in Mexico, based on the report by Occupational Information Worldwide, a San Francisco-based public well being nonprofit, and Casa Cem, a Mexican environmental group.
Whereas Mexico’s rules stipulate that services should take away lead from contaminated soil and might be shut down for violating environmental requirements, Mexican authorities data present that lately few vegetation have been closed.
Mexico’s lax environmental legal guidelines and much more lax enforcement encourages American corporations to dump used automobile batteries to the nation, where labor is cheaper and unions are weaker, based on specialists in labor rights and occupational well being.
“Employees in these vegetation are being poisoned day in and day trip, and infrequently with out even their very own information of that,’’ stated Perry Gottesfeld, govt director of Occupational Information Worldwide. “They don’t get the coaching, they don’t get the tools and so they don’t get to function in services which have enough air flow.”
Over the previous 10 years the variety of automobile batteries shipped to Mexico from the USA has grown by almost 20 p.c, based on E.P.A. data included within the examine by the 2 teams. In 2021, greater than 75 p.c of all used U.S. batteries had been exported there in 2021, E.P.A. data confirmed.
At recycling vegetation, lead is faraway from batteries, floor up, melted and changed into ingots which are used to make new batteries.
The world’s largest automobile battery maker, Clarios, which relies in Milwaukee, Wis., purchased two vegetation in Monterrey in 2019, and the report discovered lead ranges in soil outdoors its services that had been effectively above the authorized restrict in Mexico of 800 components 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 components per million, whereas on the different Clarios facility, a pattern confirmed 3,800 components per million of lead.
Clarios closed its final U.S.-based automobile battery recycling facility, in South Carolina, in 2021, following a collection 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 p.c in recycling prices, based on a submitting by Clarios with the Securities and Trade Fee.
“Actually there may be price financial savings should you don’t have to fret about upgrading your facility to fulfill the requirements which are in place within the U.S.,” Mr. Gottesfeld stated.
A spokeswoman for Clarios stated the corporate’s services use “strict security protocols and we offer our staff with state-of-the-art protecting security gear.’’
“We work with native well being, security, and environmental authorities to make sure our services usually are not solely in compliance, however set the benchmark for our business,” stated the spokeswoman, Ana Margarita Garza-Villarreal.
Although Mexico’s federal environmental company has the ability to close down vegetation that violate environmental requirements, company paperwork present that officers briefly closed components of battery recycling vegetation simply 4 instances for air and soil contamination previously 23 years.
Mexican regulation requires vegetation to have filtration programs to eradicate the unfold of lead mud and firms should present staff 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, based on interviews by The Occasions with 15 present and former staff at battery recycling vegetation in Monterrey.
Óscar Nuñez, 32, stated he labored at a recycling plant owned by a Mexican firm the place the air flow didn’t work effectively and lead mud penetrated his gloves.
“It was like jail in there,” stated Mr. Nuñez, who give up after three months over considerations 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 staff in excessive lead publicity areas.
Of the roughly 300 staff whose blood samples she examined each three months, she stated a 3rd of them had 50 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood of their system. The common for battery recycling staff in the USA in 2022 was 9 micrograms, based on a battery commerce group.
Lead specialists in the USA say staff 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,” stated Ms. Coronado, who left the plant in 2021 and now works at an area well being clinic.
Ms. Coronado stated the corporate sometimes gave staff 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 embrace 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 staff on the Gonher plant can have extreme penalties, stated Dr. Michael Kosnett, an skilled on office lead publicity and an affiliate adjunct professor on the Colorado College of Public Well being.
“It shouldn’t be tolerated,” he stated. “Among the many most important long run opposed results related to blood lead within the teenagers or greater ranges is a documented threat of loss of life from coronary heart illness.”
As for Mr. González, he stated he had provided to curtain off containers holding lead mud. However his supervisor instructed him it was not a precedence.
Mr. González stated he was fired from the plant in 2021 as a part of what the corporate instructed him was a restructuring. In his 5 years on the plant, he had by no means missed a day of labor, he stated, and believed he was dismissed at the very least partly due to the considerations he raised repeatedly about lead publicity.
Mr. González, who now works renting music tools for personal occasions, stated mates who work on the recycling plant say little has modified.
“There may be a number of venom there,” he stated.
Chantal Flores and Lorena Ríos contributed reporting from Monterrey.
