Investigate the public health impact of heavy metal contamination from a US owned smelter in an Andean mining region of Peru to identify lead poisoning cases and plan for site mitigation.
For years, families in La Oroya, Peru- the site of an American owned smelter- have been exposed to the toxic emissions from the plant. According to the Peruvian Ministry of Health, blood lead levels among local children are triple the World Health Organization limit of 10 micrograms/deciliter. However, there is no medical screening to identify and treat lead poisoned children. Citizens of the town will also benefit from our education and outreach program, and remediation planning efforts.
We will work with the Peruvian Government to better characterize the sources of exposure, and plan to mitigate the contamination in La Oroya. We will encourage the testing of residents in order to identify and treat those most severly poisoned.
We are working to encourage efforts to initiate universal screening, medical treatment, source reduction, and site mitigation. Other activities include conducting health education and outreach.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
