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March 2003, Vol 93, No. 3 | American Journal of Public Health 362-363
© 2003 American Public Health Association

LETTER

UPDATE ON LEAD POISONING IN A NICARAGUAN COMMUNITY

Carlos Morales Bonilla and Evelyn A. Mauss, ScD

Carlos Morales Bonilla is with the National Reference and Diagnostic Center, Ministry of Health, Managua, Nicaragua. Evelyn A. Mauss was a consultant to the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Correspondence: Requests for reprints should be sent to Carlos Morales Bonilla, National Resources Defense Council, 40 W 20th St, New York, NY 10011, Attn: Jessica E. Rosario (e-mail: moralesbonilla{at}hotmail.com; jrosario{at}nrdc.org).

In a report in the Journal in 1998,1 we described a then unprecedented measure taken by parents in Pablo Ubeda, a poor barrio in Managua, Nicaragua. The parents had feared that lead emissions from the battery factory at the border of their barrio might be harmful to their children. Their appeals to government that the emissions be reduced or the factory closed had been ignored, as had newspaper and television reports of their concerns, and so they sought authoritative data that might support their quest.

Tests performed in 1996 showed that 78 (80%) of 97 children had blood lead concentrations (PbB) of at least 10 ug/dL (10 ug/dL PbB is defined by the CDC as the "level of concern").2 This contrasted with the finding that 9 (30%) of 30 children in Villa Venezuela, a demographically comparable barrio without a battery factory, had PbB of at least 10 ug/dL.

The gratifying addendum to the report was that in 1997, in "response to public disapproval," Nicaragua’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment ordered the factory closed.

In 1999 and 2000, 70 Pablo Ubeda children were retested. Now only 10 (14%) had PbB of at least 10 ug/dL (Table 1Go).


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  		TABLE 1— Percentages of Children in Barrio Pablo Ubeda With PbB >= 10 ug/dL Before and After Closing of Battery Factory in 1996.1
 
However, some of the parents whose children still had elevated PbB appealed for continued monitoring. In 2002, we retested 22 children in Pablo Ubeda, as well as 22 in Villa Venezuela. We were curious whether positive change had been maintained in Pablo Ubeda, especially since 2 dusty main roads had been paved in 2001 and the parents had attended a series of health education sessions conducted by first author Morales.

In Pablo Ubeda, 6 (27%) of the children had PbB of at least 10 ug/dL. In Villa Venezuela, all 22 children had PbB of less than 5 ug/dL (Table 1Go). (Quality control of the laboratory that performed the test is, incidentally, regularly conducted by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.)

Why the rise in Pablo Ubeda? Why the fall in Villa Venezuela? There are several likely factors:

To the people of Pablo Ubeda, it appears that even a community inexperienced with activist initiatives may effect constructive change on its own behalf. There are battery factories in other barrios ringing Managua; the Pablo Ubeda experience may be a model for them.

Acknowledgments

We are appreciative of funding awarded by the Technical Aid Project of TECNICA, USA, and by private donors.

I regret to note that Dr Mauss passed away on January 18, 2003. Evelyn’s insight, hard work and undaunted dedication to the issues she cared about will be greatly missed.

References

1. Morales Bonilla C, Mauss EA. A communityinitiated study of blood lead levels of Nicaraguan children living near a battery factory. Am J Public Health. 1998;88:1843–1845.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

2. Centers for Disease Control. Preventing Lead Poisoning in Young Children: A Statement by the Centers for Disease Control. Atlanta, Ga: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 1991.





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