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Spatial clustering of toxic trace elements in adolescents around the Torreón, Mexico lead–zinc smelter

Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology volume 24, pages 634–642 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

High blood lead (BPb) levels in children and elevated soil and dust arsenic, cadmium, and lead were previously found in Torreón, northern Mexico, host to the world’s fourth largest lead–zinc metal smelter. The objectives of this study were to determine spatial distributions of adolescents with higher BPb and creatinine-corrected urine total arsenic, cadmium, molybdenum, thallium, and uranium around the smelter. Cross-sectional study of 512 male and female subjects 12–15 years of age was conducted. We measured BPb by graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry and urine trace elements by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, with dynamic reaction cell mode for arsenic. We constructed multiple regression models including sociodemographic variables and adjusted for subject residence spatial correlation with spatial lag or error terms. We applied local indicators of spatial association statistics to model residuals to identify hot spots of significant spatial clusters of subjects with higher trace elements. We found spatial clusters of subjects with elevated BPb (range 3.6–14.7 μg/dl) and urine cadmium (0.18–1.14 μg/g creatinine) adjacent to and downwind of the smelter and elevated urine thallium (0.28–0.93 μg/g creatinine) and uranium (0.07–0.13 μg/g creatinine) near ore transport routes, former waste, and industrial discharge sites. The conclusion derived from this study was that spatial clustering of adolescents with high BPb and urine cadmium adjacent to and downwind of the smelter and residual waste pile, areas identified over a decade ago with high lead and cadmium in soil and dust, suggests that past and/or present plant operations continue to present health risks to children in those neighborhoods.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the Coahuila State Ministry of Health for providing the facilities for the study. This study was supported by grant no. R01 ES015597, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, U.S. Public Health Service.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Facultad de Medicina, Universidad Juárez del Estado de Durango, Gómez Palacio Durango, México

    Gonzalo G Garcia-Vargas & Marisela Rubio-Andrade

  2. Secretaría de Salud del Estado de Coahuila, Coahuila, México

    Gonzalo G Garcia-Vargas

  3. Centro de Investigación en Salud Poblacional, Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México

    Stephen J Rothenberg

  4. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Ellen K Silbergeld, Virginia Weaver, Rachel Zamoiski, Carol Resnick, Ana Navas-Acién & Eliseo Guallar

  5. Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Ellen K Silbergeld, Ana Navas-Acién & Eliseo Guallar

  6. Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology, and Clinical Research, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Virginia Weaver, Ana Navas-Acién & Eliseo Guallar

  7. Department of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA

    Virginia Weaver

  8. New York State Department of Health, Laboratory of Inorganic and Nuclear Chemistry, Wadsworth Center, Albany, New York, USA

    Patrick J Parsons & Amy J Steuerwald

  9. Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University at Albany, Albany, New York, USA

    Patrick J Parsons & Amy J Steuerwald

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  1. Gonzalo G Garcia-Vargas
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  3. Ellen K Silbergeld
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  7. Marisela Rubio-Andrade
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  10. Ana Navas-Acién
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  11. Eliseo Guallar
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Correspondence to Stephen J Rothenberg.

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Supplementary Information accompanies the paper on the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology website

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Garcia-Vargas, G., Rothenberg, S., Silbergeld, E. et al. Spatial clustering of toxic trace elements in adolescents around the Torreón, Mexico lead–zinc smelter. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 24, 634–642 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/jes.2014.11

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