LA OROYA IS DYING

La Oroya is an industrial city located 175 km from Lima, in the department of Junin. In 1992 it became a metallurgic center when the company, Cerro de Pasco Cooper Corporation, initiated its operations.

Since then, life in La Oroya has taken a downfall because of the effects of the smelting operations. These operations are responsible for the contamination of lead, sulfur dioxide and other heavy metals that are emitted daily into the environment through an enormous chimney that seems to dominate the city. At the moment, La Oroya has a population of 33,034 habitants.

In 1974, the smelting changed to the hands of the Peruvian State: CENTROMIN Peru. In 1996, CENTROMIN Peru presented its Plan of Adjustment and Environmental Management (PAMA). This plan would run a course of 10 years, after which the company would be adapted to the environmental norms in force.

In 1997, the Metallurgic Complex of La Oroya was sold to the North American company Doe Run and Doe Run Peru – When DRP was created, it immediately modified the PAMA, three times and requested an extension of its term (that ended in January 2007) for another five years. On June 2006, after many scandals and denunciations within the national and international media, the Ministry of Energy and Mines (MEM), in a controversial decision, decided to implement the extension of the PAMA to the year 2009.

Unfortunately, this decision was made disregarding the evidence gathered from health studies initiated since 1999 as well as the evidence of a study in 2001 indicating high levels of lead within the bloodstreams of various women and children. According to the Minister of Health (MINSA), 99% of the children in La Oroya have high levels of lead in their blood, averaging to 33.6 ug/dl micrograms per deciliter, surpassing the permissible maximum limit, indicated by the World Health Organization (OMS), of 10 ug/dl micrograms per deciliter.

In 2005, the Saint Louis University in Missouri, in accordance with the Archdiocese of Huancayo, made a study on the environmental contamination in the homes of La Oroya and Concepción and its impact on the health of its residents, to determine the toxic metal levels within the blood and urine. The results of the biological sampling confirmed the severe situation the communal health of La Oroya and especially La Oroya Antigua is experiencing. The study concludes that the population of La Oroya and Concepción is gravely contaminated with lead, arsenic, cadmium, antimony, etc.

On June 27th 2006, the people of La Oroya had their right to healthy lives recognized by the order from the Constitutional Court (CT) of Peru. This order arranged the Ministry of Health (MINSA) to implement an emergency system developed to submit the people of La Oroya, contaminated with lead, to immediate care and assistance, prioritizing specialized medical attention to children and pregnant women.

Simultaneously, on August 2nd 2007, CONAM published the plan “Clean the Air of the Atmospheric Basin of La Oroya”, aiming to protect the health of the people and the quality of the environment with the influence and use of various strategies, politics and direct measures of actions. Decisions will be arranged and implemented to control the environmental contamination by reducing the emissions of the chimney and fugitive emissions of the Metallurgic Complex of La Oroya. CONAM’s plan included a “Plan of Contingency” developed to reduce the exposure of high levels of contamination to the population as well as to reduce the emissions resulting from acute episodes of contamination, which depend on the active participation of the affected population and the macroemitter (Doe Run Peru).

Thanks to the pressure of the civil society and the support of several social organizations established in La Oroya, the harmful plans have yet to be implemented. We must vote to provide new horizons of hope and health to the people in La Oroya, who deserve to live in a healthy environment.

Lima September 7th 2006