DAVID ROCHKIND PHOTOGRAPHY

Photography: pollution : the human cost

There has been a metal smelting plant in La Oroya, Peru for over 80 years. The plant, which processes metals like gold and silver, emits toxic gases into the air that pollute the environment. Studies have shown that the majority of children in La Oroya have lead in their blood; it is not uncommon for children to have quantities up to 5 times the World Health Organization’s permissible amount. Children and adults alike suffer from headaches, body aches, fatigue and respiratory problems. The majority in La Oroya live in poverty and can’t afford to see doctors or buy medicine; sometimes their only option for getting healthy is to leave town. The people of La Oroya, in large part, depend on the very plant that is poisoning them. Doe Run, the Missouri based company that owns the plant, directly employs nearly 3,000 people, forming an integral part of the town’s economy. The New York based Blacksmith Institute has listed La Oroya as one of the 10 most polluted towns on the planet, owing to the decades of unchecked contamination that the plant has caused.

The chimney at the Doe Run-Peru metallurgical plant emits toxic gasses 24 hours a day that severely damage the health of people living next to the plant. According to the company, the chimney is so large that there is currently no technology available that can measure emissions in real time.
  
A worker walks around inside of the Doe Run-Peru metallurgical plant. The company employs nearly 3000 people, making it a vital part of the economy in La Oroya. Most workers are afraid to speak against the company out of fear that, in retaliation, they will be fired.
   
Inside the Doe Run Complex
     
  
Bertha Luz Andrade lies in her bed, dying of cancer that has invaded her liver. A doctor told her she must leave La Oroya to convalesce, but she is unable to because she has 5 children. Bertha died a few weeks after this picture was taken.
   
The streets of La Oroya Vieja are busy in the late afternoon as people return home from work. La Oroya Vieja is the most polluted part of town, as it sits directly across the river from the pant.
   
     
  
Children are the most affected segment of the population by metal poisoning in La Oroya. A study conducted by the University of St. Louis discovered that nearly all children in the city have lead poisoning. Dozens of the most severely poisoned children participate in a day care program run by Doe Run-Peru, but the rest are left with no assistance. This boy gets his blood tested for lead through a program run by the Ministry of Health.
   
A guard tower sits along the security fence at one of the metal refining plants in La Oroya. La Oroya is a true company town; trains run through the city, workers roam the streets and the company infrastructure is a constant reminder of its significance and threat to the town.
   
     
  
A truck carrying gas drives through La Oroya in front of the scarred mountains.
   
Most people in La Oroya feel trapped. They know that the only way to get healthy is to leave town, but the possibility of leaving their homes and transplanting their families on a meager salary is nearly impossible. Residents are fearful to challenge the company and have very little support or protection from the Peruvian government. Doe Run-Peru has already been granted an extension to the deadline to bring the plant within environmental health norms, but workers say it will be difficult to meet the new deadline. With no voice and no protection, residents of La Oroya currently have very few possibilities to lead healthy lives.
  
For years families were told that their health problems were a result of poor hygiene and poor nutrition. Children fell ill and performed poorly in school and there was no help or assistance offered. Families are slowly beginning to realize that pollution and lead poisoning plays a role in their illness and are starting to demand change.
     
  
   
A mother washes her daughters hair in a bucket. The child has severe lead poisoning but the family can not afford to see a doctor and has received little assistance from the government or Doe Run.
   
Richard Romero, a community activist, walks through La Oroya organizing families for a class action lawsuit against Doe Run that will be brought to court in the United States.
     
  
David Suarez calls for his mother while in bed. He is recuperating from a broken leg and has severe lead poisoning.
  
Children play in a public playground just outside of the plant. According to doctors in La Oroya, young children are very susceptible to lead poisoning because they spend so much time playing on the ground. The contaminated dust gets on their skin and clothes and is more easily ingested.
   
The main cemetery for the people of La Oroya is seen in late afternoon. Because of a lack of research it is difficult to prove that people die directly from pollution, but residents say that when children die with severe lead and arsenic poisoning, or a disproportionate number of young adults die of cancer, that pollution is surely the cause.
     
  
La Oroya Antigua, the part of town closest to the plant.