U.S. Toxic Waste Exports Cause Health Crisis for Residents of Canada and Mexico

A joint investigation by The Guardian and the Fifth Element Laboratory, a Mexican non-profit research organization, shows that the United States has exported 1.4 million tons of hazardous waste to Canada over the past five years, an increase of 25%. In the town of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, Canada, a copper smelter that processes electronic waste has been emitting toxic substances for so long that arsenic levels under the fingernails of local children are well above normal, neighborhood residents have shorter lifespans, higher rates of cancer, and babies with low birth weights are more common. In Monterrey, Mexico, high levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in the soil and air around a plant that recycles toxic dust from the United States steel industry and a plant that handles waste batteries from the United States pose a serious threat to the health of residents.