A STRATEGY TO DEVELOP ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES AND TOXICOLOGY IN MEXICO: THE U.S.-MEXICO BINATIONAL CENTER.

A. Jay Gandolfi 1, Jim A. Field 2 and Mariano E. Cebrian 3.

1 College of Pharmacy, University of Arizona . 2Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Arizona . 3 Seccion de Toxicologia, Centro de Investigacion y de Estudios Avanzados del IPN, Mexico D.F.

The North American Free Trade Agreement has successfully increased trade between U.S. and Mexico. However, a number of concerns have come to light about environmental health and hazardous waste pollution in the Border States. In particular, hazardous pollutants from 3,000 border industries (maquiladoras), intensified pesticide usage, as well as wastes from mines and metal processing have had demonstrable health impacts. A lack of trained human capital to plan, implement, and maintain environmental infrastructure has been identified as a major obstacle for Mexico in its effort to face the growing environmental and public health challenges.

Our strategy to develop environmental sciences and toxicology is to create a higher education partnership between the University of Arizona (UA) and a consortium of ten Mexican Universities/Institutes and anchor the higher education partnership into a long-term commitment as part of the Binational Center for Environmental Sciences and Toxicology between Mexico ’s Science and Technology Ministry (CONACYT) and the UA. The main objectives of this partnership are: 1) Build capacity among Mexican graduate students and faculty to solve problems related to hazardous pollution in Mexico; 2) Support the development of Mexican degree programs in this area; 3) Foster research collaboration between UA and Mexican faculty. A multidisciplinary approach will be implemented by integrating public health, toxicology, and environmental engineering, modeled upon NIEHS Superfund Basic Research Program. The project will be carried out through four major kinds of activities: 1) Fellowships for graduate studies; 2) Providing short courses; 3) Developing educational materials; and 4) Research projects. Environmental problems common to both the US and Mexico should serve as the focus for the capacity building program and collaborative research. Four common environmental problems were identified for phase one: 1) Arsenic in drinking water; 2) Impact of mining/metal processing on public health; 3) Pesticide use and health impacts; and 4) Maquiladoras and uncontrolled disposal/release of toxic substances. The most important outcome of this project will be the creation of human capital with multidisciplinary training in the areas of environmental science, engineering, and toxicology.