Media Release

Chilpancingo residents’ health at risk from toxic smoke
Failures of NAFTA at root of two fires

(February 9, 2005) Yesterday, February 8 th, a fire at Tijuana’s abandoned maquiladora Metales y Derivados released clouds of thick black toxic smoke from the site that Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) and community residents from EHC’s affiliate, the Colectivo Chilpancingo Pro Justicia Ambiental, have struggled for years to clean up. More than 21,000 tons of mixed contaminated materials including lead and arsenic remained at the site, a U.S.-based battery recycler closed in 1994 for repeated violations of Mexican environmental law.

EHC and the Colectivo are very concerned about the health of the nearby community as a consequence of the fire. “What burned up was highly toxic material,” said Amelia Simpson, Director of EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign. “EHC and the Colectivo call on the government to immediately secure the site, both so that people do not enter and so that wind and rain do not cause further dispersal of toxic substances. A notification system should be activated to warn workers and families of the dangers of exposure at the site and in the adjacent community.” She added that emergency, as well as long-term health care and monitoring should be provided to the community, and an air quality assessment should be conducted to document the dangers caused by the fire from immediate exposure to smoke and from conditions and residues following the incident.

In addition to the fire at Metales y Derivados, another fire at approximately the same time broke out in a nearby squatters’ settlement of maquiladora workers and their families. An estimated 50 dwellings made of scraps of wood, plastic, cardboard and other materials were completely destroyed. Residents formed a bucket brigade and attempted to put out the fire by scooping water from the highly contaminated Río Alamar.

After more than a decade of demanding the cleanup of the toxic Metales y Derivados site, the Colectivo signed an agreement in 2004 with the Mexican government for remediation. 1,936 tons of above-ground hazardous waste, considered the most dangerous, were removed between June 2004 and September 2005, as part of the binational, community-driven, remediation project. Preliminary results of 50 soil samples taken September 2006 showed high levels of lead remained inside the site.

EHC and the Colectivo call for an end to NAFTA-style free trade agreements that benefit companies operating factories in areas like the Tijuana border region, but do not provide workers with living wages or basic services such as housing, electricity, running water and sewage. Workers and their families have no choice but to live in dangerous conditions.

“On top of the long-term exposure to lead and other toxics from Metales y Derivados that the entire adjacent community has lived with for over ten years, now they’re facing a very dangerous toxic incident,” declared Magdalena Cerda, Organizer with EHC’s Border Environmental Justice Campaign. “The fire makes the problem of Metales y Derivados worse. These two incidents underline the deep injustice that NAFTA and corporate globalization brought to this community.”

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