Torreon Smelter

Despite the fact that the Torreon smelter is one of the largest in Latin America, and although it is located less than two km from downtown Torreon, with the predominant winds blowing in the direction from the smelter towards the residential and central areas of the city, no large scale study has been carried out on the impact of this source on the health of its residents. 

In the case where large amounts of silver are contained in lead bullion, a three-stage Parkes process can be used, such as the case at the Torreon Smelter in Mexico, which has an input silver content of 1.4 per cent and uses around 18 kg of zinc per tonne of bullion. Using this technique some selectivity between silver and gold can be obtained, since gold is concentrated in the first crusts. 

Company Name Cominco Ltd. Trail Operations / Canada Doe Run Company (1,2) Herculaneum / USA Met-Mex Penoies, S.A. Torreon / Mexico Noranda Inc. Brunswick Smelter Berzelius Stolberg GmbH... 

Company Name Pasminco Port Pirie Smelter iUistralia Toho Dne Co. Chigirlahima Plant Hindustan Zinc Ltd., Chanderiya 1 liMlia Asarcolne. East Helana Plant Met-Mex PeiK>les, S.A. Torreon / Mexico... 

Despite the importance of activities related to lead for the economy of these cities, the large population potentially exposed and the fact that the Torreon refinery is generally considered one of the largest in Latin America, no studies have been carried out on air lead levels in the areas surrounding the smelters, only one study has been carried out on lead levels in blood and dust at Ciudad Juarez and two on lead in hair in Torreon. Their results will be presented in the relevant sections. In both cases, the need for further studies and the urgency for the strengthening of regulations to control lead emissions by these sources is evident from the data. 

It is important to stress that no similar studies have been carried out in the cities of Torreon, Monterrey, or Chihuahua, where the most important Mexican smelters are located (see Table 1). 

In another study carried out at Torreon, Coah., with hair samples from university students living from 1-6 km from the smelter, the mean hair lead concentration was 15.3 + 7.9 pg/g (Albores et al. 1981). The authors also analyzed blood lead and ALA in urine and concluded that these values could not be correlated with those from lead in hair. 

Kordas et al. (2004) studied Mexican schoolchildren (N = 602) impacted by a lead smelter in Torreon, Mexico, for associations of PbB elevation (mean= 11.5p.g/dl) and test outcomes on various psychometric tests. The Spanish version of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test and the subtests of the WISC-R IQ Test were significantly inversely associated with concurrent PbB measurements. Cho et al. (2010) reported that concurrent PbB in 667... 

---