The Importance Of Pollution Levels In El Paso

Pollution levels in El Paso first began to raise the attention of society and the government between the years of 1994-1995. The reason for this was because of the North American Free Trade Agreement that was established by president George H.W. Bush in 1994. The agreement allowed all neighboring countries to the U.S. such as Mexico and Canada to freely trade among each other without hesitation or increased taxing on the traded goods. This allowed for more goods between these countries to be traded and in the end create better international race relations. However, with the constant shipping and handling of goods, more trucks from Mexico were entering into El Paso. These heavy duty, diesel trucks would drive through the city and pollute
The brain does not fully formed until you are 22 according to the research done by UTEP. Therefore, when a child inhales the toxic air, the brain slowly decreases its neurological functions and does not expand as fast. It was proven that children in El Paso had significantly lower GPA’s than any other Texas southern school. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has encouraged the governor of the El Paso region to install pollution monitors close to schools to track the level of exposures. In 2009, the monitors were finally installed and it showed that pollution levels were the highest during 7am-11am, rush hour. As a result, the schools decided to limit recess at this time and instead have recess later in the afternoon when levels were not as high.

Even with the pollution monitors, health problems still began to occur in El Paso. In 2010, an outbreak of asthma cases among children began. S.E. Saran, a biologist and environmentalist, conducted research on the respiratory response of children along the U.S.-Mexican border through a journal entry she wrote called, “Air Pollution and Acute Respiratory Response in a Panel of Asthmatic Children along the U.S.–Mexico
Rogers and Leonard Lewisohn opened a smelting business, one of the first actually, in the city and added it to the American Smelting and Refining Company (ASARCO). Marianne Sullivan wrote a book in 2014 called Tainted Earth that examines the impact smelting has had on El Paso. In addition, she also observes the environmental and public health effects this process has had on the community. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s people were looking for new industries to thrive and ways to make money. “When Rogers and Lewisohn came up with a faster and more efficient way to extract metal from ore their business quickly boomed (Sullivan, 2014, pg.14)” Little did the two men know that during this procedure, lead arsenic are released into the atmosphere. Over time production of releasing metal from ore increased and so did the toxins released into the