Mexico is facing a \u201ctoxic crisis\u201d and has become a \u201cgarbage sink\u201d for the US, exposing Mexican communities to dangerous pollution, a UN expert has warned.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Guardian and Quinto Elemento Lab, an investigative outlet, Marcos Orellana, an environmental specialist, said pollutants ranging from imported waste to dangerous pesticides are affecting people\u2019s right to live healthy lives.<\/p>\n
Orellana, whose title is UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, conducted an 11-day investigative mission in Mexico last month to learn about toxic threats facing its population. He said he found lax environmental standards and a lack of oversight, which have allowed pollution to accumulate over the years.<\/p>\n
Marcos Orellana, the UN special rapporteur on toxics and human rights, at a press conference in Mexico City, Mexico, in March 2026. Photograph: Mario Guzman\/EPA<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere standards are weak, what you get is legalized pollution,\u201d he said, adding that imports of hazardous and plastic waste from the United States are worsening the situation.<\/p>\n
\u201cUS overconsumption and economic activity are using Mexico as a garbage sink.\u201d<\/p>\n
The rapporteur said there were more than 1,000 contaminated locations officially recorded in Mexico\u2019s National Inventory of Contaminated Sites, many of which he said had become \u201csacrifice zones\u201d, where diseases such as cancer, autism and miscarriages were normalized.<\/p>\n
In a preliminary report summarizing his visit, he cited factories spewing hazardous waste into the Atoyac River in Puebla, massive industrial pig farms contaminating drinking water on the Yucatan Peninsula and a decade-old mining chemical spill that continued to affect health in communities around the Sonora River.<\/p>\n
He said many of these situations left residents struggling with dire health effects.<\/p>\n
A resident collects water outside their home in the Arizpe community, Sonora state, Mexico, in 2014, when a copper mine leaked 40,000 cubic meters of sulfuric acid into the Sonora River, seriously polluting the water way. Photograph: H\u00e9ctor Guerrero\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cAs I heard during one meeting: living in a sacrifice zone means losing the right to die of old age,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
He cited one place he visited, the industrial corridor of Tula in the central Mexican state of Hidalgo, where steel plants, cement factories and petrochemical facilities operate near a river polluted by industrial waste and untreated sewage from Mexico City. He said proposals to bring in additional waste for recycling would only add to an already devastating environmental burden on communities there.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, companies are not held responsible for preventing, mitigating and repairing the damage, he said.<\/p>\n
The result, he said, is the \u201clegalized poisoning of people\u201d.<\/p>\n
The rapporteur highlighted the influx of plastic waste from the United States. He said once this waste crosses the border, there is often little clarity about its final destinations. In addition, he said he was concerned that microscopic plastic particles have been detected in rivers such as the Tecate in Baja California, the Atoyac in Puebla and the Jamapa in Veracruz.<\/p>\n
This view shows a section of the Pemex thermoelectric plant and refinery in Tula de Allende, Hidalgo state, Mexico, in August 2024. Photograph: Alfredo Estrella\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Government records show the US ships hundreds of thousands of tons of hazardous waste<\/a> to Mexico each year, including lead-acid car batteries, as well as common scrap such as plastic, paper and metal for recycling. Environmental groups have questioned whether the country is equipped to handle all this without it leading to pollution.<\/p>\n Residents in Monterrey, which serves as a US manufacturing hub and suffers some of the worst air pollution in North America<\/a>, welcomed the rapporteur\u2019s calls for more attention to the health of Mexico\u2019s people.<\/p>\n Mar\u00eda Enr\u00edquez, a mother and activist in Monterrey, who co-founded the environmental group Comit\u00e9 Ecol\u00f3gico Integral, warned that poor air quality has become part of daily life in the city, and residents suffer from rhinitis, eye irritation and asthma attacks.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have learned to live sick, especially with respiratory illnesses,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Guadalupe Rodr\u00edguez, director of a network of childcare centers in Monterrey, agreed, saying children in her nursery program were also affected.<\/p>\n \u201cFamilies consider it normal for children to have constant coughing,\u201d said Rodr\u00edguez. She called on the government to do more to enforce Mexico\u2019s constitutional guarantee of a healthy living environment, especially for the most vulnerable. \u201cIf they are not protected, the right to health is not being guaranteed.\u201d<\/p>\n People take part in a protest demanding the closure of the Pemex refinery, blaming it for polluting the air, in Monterrey, Mexico, in January 2024. Photograph: Daniel Becerril\/Reuters<\/p>\n The rapporteur\u2019s visit, at the invitation of the Mexican government, comes at a time when toxic and hazardous waste are coming under increasing scrutiny in the country.<\/p>\n