Author: Steve Fisher
After returning home from his job at a car battery recycling plant in northern Mexico one evening in 2019, Azael Mateo González Ramírez said he felt dizzy, his bones ached and his throat was raspy. Then came stomach pain, he said, followed by bouts of diarrhea. The plant in Monterrey where he worked handled used car batteries, many from the United States, extracting lead as part of the process. Mr. González, 39, stacked the batteries, he said, near large containers of lead dust.