Grim Days for El Paso

Ever since the 1880s, the clean desert air over El Paso has been smudged black from smokestacks belonging to the American Smelting & Refining Company. El Pasoans sneezed and coughed, but the belchings seemed a necessary nuisance to most people--and particularly to the plant's 750 workers, largely Mexicans, who earned their livelihood by smelting copper and lead.

Now they are beginning to wonder. Early this month five youngsters who live near the plant had to be hospitalized for severe lead poisoning. They were two to five years old. "Blood samples showed basophilic stippling [small purple dots], and some of the children showed lead lines in the gums of their teeth," says Dr. Bernard Rosenblum, head of the city health unit.

Another 54 children also showed high lead content in their blood. "We found some kids with foot drop, a symptom of lead poisoning," adds Rosenblum. "This occurs when nerves become paralyzed, and the person cannot hold his foot up from the ankle. Mothers also told us of children who were irritable and had loss of weight. These can be signs of lead poisoning."*

Last week state and city officials took American Smelting to court, charging that from 1969 to 1971 the plant emitted enormous amounts of lead, cadmium, arsenic and zinc into the air. The suit asks a fine of $1,000,000.

Even worse findings may lie ahead. Dr. Bertram Carnow of the University of Illinois testified at the trial: "The amount of lead I have seen in El Paso is the highest in both the air and the soil that I have ever seen or heard of." Worried city officials plan a massive examination. "We will be taking blood samples from between 50,000 and 60,000 kids," says Rosenblum. El Paso Mayor Bert Williams, who has campaigned against American Smelting and has consequently been booed by workers fearful of the plant's shutting down, is going to Washington to seek federal help. Last week he was visited by the mayor of Juarez, just across the Rio Grande from El Paso. "He is concerned about the children on the Mexican side of the river," said Williams. "The Mexican government plans to start blood tests over there too."

*So is mental retardation. A Houston woman recently won $175,000 in damages from Lead Products Co. on grounds that lead poisoning had caused brain damage in her six children.

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