Source: AFP
The Inter-American Court of Human Rights said on Friday that Peru violated the “right of residents to live in a healthy environment” in an Andean mining town considered one of the most polluted places on earth.
The Andean town of La Oroya, located in a high-altitude valley at 3,750 meters (12,300 feet), is home to a heavy metal smelter that has poisoned residents and the environment for nearly a century.
In 2006, residents of La Oroya sued the Peruvian government at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for allowing the company to pollute at will.
Since then, the city has often appeared on lists of the most polluted places on the planet, with sites such as Ukraine’s nuclear-contaminated Chernobyl and Russia’s Dzerzhinsk, the site of Cold War-era factories producing chemical weapons.
In its ruling, which is binding, the Costa Rica-based court accused the Peruvian state of “violating the rights to a healthy environment, health, personal integrity, a dignified life… at the expense of the 80 victims” who the lawsuit filed.
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The court ordered Peru to conduct an analysis of air, water and soil contamination in La Oroya, provide free medical care to victims and adjust allowable standards for lead, sulfur dioxide, arsenic, mercury and the particles.
Since 1922, the giant smelter that has long been the economic pulse of La Oroja has been processing copper, zinc, lead, gold, selenium and other minerals from nearby mines.
The court said the complex “had a significant impact on the environment, polluting the air, water and soil”.
The decision also stated that “exposure to lead, cadmium, arsenic and sulfur dioxide posed a significant health risk to the victims and they did not receive adequate state medical care.”
Source: AFP
According to the International Federation for Human Rights, in 2013, 97 percent of La Oroya children between the ages of six months and six years, and 98 percent between the ages of seven and 12, had elevated levels of lead in their blood.
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The smelter went bankrupt in 2009 — crippling the city’s economy — but reopened last year under the management of a company made up of nearly 1,300 shareholders — many of whom are former smelter workers.
The new administration has promised not to pollute the city.
Source: AFP