Recycled lead used in U.S. auto batteries linked to poisoning in African communities

Geoff Bennett:

You may not know it, but lead is a key element in your car battery and expensive to produce domestically.

So, U.S. automakers often use recycled lead produced overseas, a practice long framed as an environmental success story. But a new investigation has found that the recycled lead used by U.S. auto and battery manufacturers is not safe and is linked to dangerous lead poisoning.

Our Stephanie Sy has more.

Stephanie Sy:

The New York Times and a nonprofit newsroom called The Examination followed the supply chain of U.S. car batteries over the course of a year to villages in Nigeria where factories recycle lead.

The team was able to test 70 people who live in those villages and agreed to a blood test. The result, these Nigerians are being poisoned at an alarming rate, with seven out of 10 showing harmful levels of lead in their bodies. That recycled lead goes into U.S. cars.

I'm joined now by Peter Goodman, global economics correspondent for The New York Times, who was part of this reporting team.

Peter, thank you so much for sharing your reporting with the "News Hour."

You traveled to a town near Lagos, Nigeria for this story, just got back. How is lead getting into the community? And is there any doubt that it can be traced back to these lead recycling factories?

Peter Goodman, Global Economics Correspondent, The New York Times:

Yes, there's no doubt. I mean, that's why we did the tests and we had a control group and it's really clear.

So it's a very strange supply chain that we're invited to not think about. It's effectively invisible to most consumers here in the U.S., but, basically, there are all these batteries that get picked up by this group of people known as the pickers. They go around Nigeria, they find spent batteries, they buy them, they bring them to these yards, where the breakers use machetes to break apart the plastic casing.

Then they use their bare hands typically to pull out the lead from inside. And then that lead gets hauled off by truck to a bunch of factories, smelters, in this one town of Ogijo, where we spent most of our time. And this lead gets put into these really hot furnaces and melted down to liquid form.

And the result of this is noxious clouds, Black smoke, lead dust, a rain of soot landing on people's houses, laundry, dirt that children are playing in. And everybody in these surrounding communities — and we're talking about villages that are right next to these factories — is breathing in this lead.

Stephanie Sy:

Did you see or hear about specific ill health effects, the villages, the children, that they're experiencing? Did you see that?

Peter Goodman:

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, it's what people are constantly talking about. Virtually everywhere we went, people would say, my stomach is constantly hurting. My child is not sleeping. They're coughing, sinus infections, distended bellies, relentless headaches.

And we're talking about schools that are set up right alongside these factories where children are having a hard time concentrating. And all of this is indicative of serious lead poisoning, which causes irreversible brain damage.

Stephanie Sy:

How many U.S. car batteries are coming from Nigeria or from other developing countries where we may see the same issue? And talk a little bit more about the opacity of the supply chain for these batteries.

Peter Goodman:

Yes.

Yes, it's a really important point. So, first of all, this is a global phenomenon. I mean, we went to Nigeria because our reporting partner, The Examination, had mapped out the supply chain there, had enlisted a bunch of independent scientists to do the tests. We could have gone to a dozen other countries where this is playing out, though Nigeria is the fastest growing source of so-called recycled lead that's being exported to the U.S.

Look, it's a small percentage. There are large battery manufacturers in the U.S. and North America more broadly that would much prefer to get hold of spent batteries in the region, recycle them. It's actually cheaper, in fact, to rely on the domestic supply chain, because the scale is so huge and they already have their plants in place.

But we have had a combination of stricter regulations in the U.S. that have driven smelters out of business because we don't want lead poisoning in our midst in the United States, combined with growth that has produced demand for lead that's exceeded what the domestic plants can get. So they have gone out around the world looking for other sources of lead to supplement what they have got.

And Nigeria is one of scores of countries that are now supplying this so-called recycled lead to the U.S. to be folded in to batteries. So it's a small component, but it's a growing component.

And to your question about opacity, there are so many different participants involved, there's so many different countries involved that every participant can plausibly deny that it's their responsibility what's happening on the ground to people living next to these smelters in Nigeria.

Stephanie Sy:

You talked to the local king of that village.

And you write beautifully about the dependence on the economy of all of this, saying that this is a village full of people — quote — "coaxing sustenance from meager opportunities."

Peter Goodman:

Right.

Stephanie Sy:

Really paints a picture of the desperation that causes people to extract lead this way and expose themselves knowingly to this toxin. How do the people feel about it? Do they want to see change? I'm sure they don't want to see these factories and these economic opportunities go away.

Peter Goodman:

They definitely want to see change. I mean, people are eager to see this pollution minimized. They want to see equipment that comes in that limits the lead pollution that's reaching their communities, the sort of stuff that we have in our own communities here in the States.

They don't want the plants to be closed, for the simple reason, and I appreciate you're putting the focus on it, that there are a lot of people living there truly hand to mouth. These are jobs, by the way, that pay people a dollar a day. I talked to a guy who loaded lead into a shipping container who worked 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday, earned about a dollar a day doing this.

He was among the 70 people we tested. His levels were very high, along with everyone else who worked in one of these plants. And even he didn't want these plants closed, because there's so little economic opportunity there.

And that's the story of how the supply chain functions. It tends to take the dirtiest, most dangerous things and send them to places where leaders will make that bargain. They will accept things like lead poisoning in exchange for jobs.

Stephanie Sy:

So much more that you dig into in your article in The New York Times.

That is Peter Goodman joining us.

Thank you.

Peter Goodman:

Thank you so much for having me.