Thread: Oaxacan townspeople have high lead levels

Oaxacan townspeople have high lead levels
Monica Campbell, Chronicle Foreign Service

Sunday, June 22, 2008


(06-22) 17:09 PDT Zimatlan, Mexico --

In an open-air market in this rural town, indigenous Zapotec women scoop fried, rust-colored grasshoppers and pumpkin seeds from large baskets into plastic bags. Customers, from elderly men to school children, pluck down a few pesos to munch on Oaxaca state's most popular snacks.

Scenes like these make Oaxaca immigrants to the United States - many of whom live in the Bay Area - homesick. And one of the best ways to assuage their nostalgia: lovingly prepared care packages sent by relatives filled with homemade goodies.

"It's comfort food," said Teresa Mendez, a 54-year-old market cook who regularly sends local treats to her grandchildren in Northern California. "Food keeps us connected."

But health investigators on both sides of the border have concerns about traditional foods sent from Oaxaca's Zimatlan area after finding a possible link to high blood lead levels found in Oaxacans living in the scenic town of Seaside overlooking Monterey Bay.

"We are seeing an alarming rate of acute exposure," said Eric Sanford, a community health clinic doctor at the Seaside Family Health Center.

Sanford says many of his patients are U.S.-born children of Oaxacan parents from the Zimatlan area, who have higher blood lead levels than any other group in Monterey County with some reaching 20 micrograms per deciliter.

"I fear that other Oaxacans from the same villages living elsewhere in the U.S. may be experiencing the same problem," said Margaret Handley, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco.

Researchers first linked the high lead levels to deep-fried grasshoppers, known as chapulines. Further tests showed similar results in pumpkin seeds, dried herbs, hot sauce and mole sent from Zimatlan. Handley's research showed that one grasshopper exceeded the Food and Drug Administration recommended daily limit of 6 micrograms of lead for a child by 60 times.

In Oaxaca, grasshoppers are fried and seasoned with garlic, salt, chili powder and lime juice in lead-glazed pots. Chemical reactions allow the bugs to absorb lead during cooking and storage, according to Mario Villalobos, a chemist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, who works with Handley.

But Villalobos has no answer when asked why U.S. residents from Zimatlan have higher lead blood levels than immigrants from other parts of Oaxaca, who eat the same foods.

"We have yet to pinpoint why this problem is so localized," said Villalobos. "It'll take more extensive research and more tests to solve this mystery."

As far back as 2003, the high lead levels in Seaside residents pushed state officials to issue a countywide alert against eating grasshoppers from Oaxaca. They also distributed brochures and posters warning pregnant women and parents of children who eat the succulent insect to have their families checked for lead poisoning.

"It's a potentially very dangerous situation," said Monterey County Health Officer Hugh Stallworth. "We encourage parents to have children screened, and if the lead levels are high enough to be actionable then we can get the kid involved in some sort of treatment."

But the campaign did little to stop Oaxacan immigrants from eating their favorite foods.

Veronica Aragon, a 25-year-old community service aid worker for the Monterey County Health Department who hails from Zimatlan and speaks Zapotec, says she has been unable to persuade most people to throw away time-honored snacks sent by relatives.

Posting flyers around town or putting a warning on the Internet "isn't going to convince people to stop eating the food they love," she said. "Food sent from home is so tasty and means so much to people here. People say, 'How can you come and say lead is dangerous? Prove it,' ." It's not something that is easily accepted."

Aragon says respected community leaders must step forward to issue warnings on radio stations in Zimatlan and Seaside.

Back at the Zimatlan market, Maria Luisa Quevedo has sold glazed pots near the market for generations.

"We've cooked this way for years, and we're all fine," said Quevedo. She then pointed to her 92-year-old grandmother, who stirred a large glazed pot of beans. "Look at her. She's fine."

E-mail Monica Campbell at foreign@sfchronicle.com

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... .DTL&tsp=1

I am wondering if they have been keeping track of the American born childrens learning capabilities?

It also makes me wonder, if they are here, eating the lead infused snacks, and it is causing some mental incapacities, little by little, that we will have to start picking up the tab for their special ed and care in the future?

Last are these same ones we cannot seem to get through about most things, teach them important stuff, and have kids with learning disabilites, ADD and ADHD?

Originally Posted by AE

I am wondering if they have been keeping track of the American born childrens learning capabilities?

It also makes me wonder, if they are here, eating the lead infused snacks, and it is causing some mental incapacities, little by little, that we will have to start picking up the tab for their special ed and care in the future?

Last are these same ones we cannot seem to get through about most things, teach them important stuff, and have kids with learning disabilites, ADD and ADHD?

I recently saw an article about elevated lead levels in violent convicts

In all of them, or just some? I can believe, though, that lead could affect the brain in such a way, causing a human revert to their more violent, "aminalistic" side, as it does cause impairment of development and the thought process.