EarthBeat Weekly: Exposed to lead as children, Peruvians reach major settlement with aid of Catholic Church

Peruvians exposed as children to lead reach $150 million settlement with aid of Catholic Church   EarthBeat Weekly Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change July 17, 2026   The mining facility in La Oroya, Peru, is photographed in 2014. (Wikimedia Commons/Heiner Amado Cadillo) For more than 20 years, people in the town of La Oroya, tucked high in the Andes Mountains of Peru, have pursued justice for the thousands exposed to dangerous levels of toxic contamination, including lead poisoning, from the town's multi-metal smelting complex that served as an economic engine for nearly a century. Their efforts received a major victory in late June, as I reported today at EarthBeat, when a lawsuit involving 1,373 Peruvian plaintiffs — each of whom claimed lead poisoning and exposure to other toxins as children due to activities from the smelter operated by the U.S.-based mining company Doe Run Resources.  The lawsuit itself slogged through U.S. courts for 19 years. It was set to begin the first of four jury trials June 23. A day earlier, the settlement was reached. Throughout the legal proceedings, and even before then, the La Oroya residents received significant support from the Catholic Church, both in Peru and the United States.  "Without Cardinal [Pedro] Barreto and the Catholic Church, there simply would have been no case brought," said Jerry Schlichter, lead attorney in the case for the St. Louis-based firm Schlichter Bogard. It was Baretto, a Jesuit and archbishop emeritus of Huancayo, who helped bring attention and scientific scrutiny to the dangerous levels of pollution in La Oroya, after a Presbyterian minister and other faith activists reached out to him shortly after his installation in 2004 with concerns over dangerous levels of pollution in the town, including instances of lead poisoning.  Within a year, Baretto reached out to fellow Jesuits at Saint Louis University, located in the same U.S. city as Doe Run headquarters. He was quickly connected to Fernando Serrano, an environmental and occupational health professor at SLU who in August 2005 led a research team to study the extent of toxic contamination in the people of La Oroya resulting from the smelter's operations.  "Being there, breathing that air, I already knew that we were bound to find just very high levels of these toxic metals, but still, of course, we needed to do this study," Serrano told me.  The findings were staggering: 97% of children under 6 and 98% of children ages 7-12 had elevated blood lead levels, with children in the urban area closest to the smelter having levels near or approaching the threshold of a medical emergency. That study helped provide the foundation for lawsuits against Doe Run, which continuously attempted to have the cases dismissed or relocated to Peru.  Both Serrano and Barreto were set to testify at trial. Once the settlement was reached, that was no longer necessary, but Barreto opted to still travel to St. Louis to meet and thank Serrano, the attorneys and others who helped Peruvians thousands of miles away.  "These children are going to receive a sort of justice, not just for themselves but also for hopefully La Oroya in the future," the cardinal said. Read more: Peruvians exposed to lead as children reach $150M settlement, with Catholic help What else is new on EarthBeat:   Las Cruces Diocese demands jury trial, just compensation in feds' effort to seize pilgrimage site by Gina Christian, OSV News The Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, is demanding a jury trial as it fends off the Trump administration's move to seize a long-revered pilgrimage site for a border wall as part of Trump's hardline crackdown on immigration. Read more here »   Death toll in Venezuela nears 5,000 as earthquake recovery intensifies by Junno Arocho Esteves, OSV News Twin earthquakes in Venezuela have left nearly 5,000 people dead, according to government officials, triggering a massive mobilization of humanitarian aid organizations. Read more here »   'Keep Venezuelans in your hearts' after earthquakes, says Catholic relief worker by Gina Christian, OSV News Damage from two back-to-back earthquakes that struck Venezuela June 24 is "a lot worse than expected," said a Catholic Relief Services disaster response worker, who asked people to "keep Venezuelans in their hearts." Read more here »   Could Henry David Thoreau be a synodal conversation partner? by Peter Gilmour Soul Seeing - As we struggle both individually and collectively as a church to figure out synodality, might Henry David Thoreau be another voice we need to heed? Read more here » What's happening in other climate news: Top science panel backs research linking extreme weather to climate change —Raymond Zhong for The New York Times Puerto Rico announces emergency water rationing as drought worsens —Dánica Coto for the Associated Press 'Zero consultation': Tribal reps say they were left out of monument reduction decisions —Annie Knox for the Utah News Dispatch New York becomes first state in the nation to pause new hyperscale data centers —Amy Green, Dan Gearino and Ajani Stella for Inside Climate News Google's $3.5B solar project pushes US into new territory —Benjamin Storrow for E&E News White House appoints climate science critic to lead key climate program —Jake Spring and Miriam Waldvogel for the Washington Post Trump sets endangered species rules on path to Supreme Court —Bobby Magill for Bloomberg Law A shrinking strip of New Orleans marsh helps protect 1.5 million people. Louisiana wants to save it —Tristan Baurick for Verite News New monkey species with orange lips found 'hiding' in DR Congo forest —Victoria Gill for the BBC Final Beat: The World Cup comes to a conclusion this weekend. A thrilling and superstar-fueled tournament staged across North America arrives Sunday in New Jersey, just outside New York City, for its final match, featuring Spain — without a loss in normal or extra time in its past 37 national matches — against reigning champ Argentina.  The matchup also pits two of soccer's brightest stars, Lionel Messi and Lamine Yamal, against each other on the pitch. How well the throngs of fans inside Metlife Stadium can see them and their masterful abilities with the ball will be up in the air.  Literally.  Smoke from massive wildfires blazing in Canada's boreal forest to the north has cloaked large chunks of the northern U.S. in grey, hazardous skies. As of Friday morning, Detroit, Chicago and Washington ranked as the top-three cities with the worst air quality globally. New York came in at no. 5, per a report in the Washington Post. The World Cup is the latest sporting spectacle to be impacted by and bear witness to the effects of climate change. Already, Olympic Games have faced hotter temperatures during both summer and winter competitions, presenting more challenging, and in some cases unsafe, conditions for athletes. Major marathons have faced questions whether they should adjust their dates and start times as temps climb.  In the case of this World Cup final, it's wildfires exacerbated by rising temperatures — drier conditions combined with hotter temperatures create conditions that allow fires to ignite easier and burn longer. The fires not only threaten forests and nearby towns but can carry a much-larger impact radius as smoke travels for miles and miles, not constrained by state or country borders, as the situation facing the World Cup demonstrates. Forecasts expect rain on Saturday that would hopefully help clear some of the smoke.  How clear the playing field on Sunday will be remains to be seen. But what is clear already is climate change is putting such sporting events at risk, for the games themselves, the athletes and the fans who flock to them. As always, thanks for reading EarthBeat.   Brian Roewe Environment Correspondent National Catholic Reporter broewe@ncronline.org     Featured Advertisers   Become a Healer. Online, Flexible, Stackable. Apply your credits towards a Master’s in Ministry. NACC education collaborator.   Advertisement