A new study shows children are being hospitalized and dying at greater rates in a Mexican city along the U.S. border, and pollution from trucks is partly to blame.
The Commission for Environmental Cooperation studied children in Jaurez, Mexico, which sits across the Rio Grande from El Paso, Texas, and is a major border crossing for trucks hauling goods as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The group’s report blamed increased truck traffic for a rise in hospitalization and deaths among children in Jaurez.
The group was established by the United States, Mexico and Canada to improve the implementation of NAFTA’s environmental requirements.
According to the study, between 1997 and 2001, respiratory distress led to 36,087 emergency visits by children ages 5 and younger at two Juarez hospitals. Mexico’s health standard for ozone was only exceeded 14 times during that period.
The study found “significant associations” between child mortality and particulate matter emitted from diesel trucks and other sources. Of the 696 infants who died during the study’s five-year period, 231 deaths were related to respiratory illness.
When particulate levels were up for two consecutive days, respiratory deaths for poor infants ages one to 12 months increased by 82 percent in following days.
Mortality for children in homes with greater socio-economic status did not increase, researchers noted.
