In the smaller city of Trail, British Columbia, just over 7,000 citizens contend with hard-hitting public health challenges. At the same time, they heavily rely on one of North America’s last lead smelters to fuel their economy. Teck Resources, which runs the smelter, has for more than a century been a bedrock of Trail’s economy. It has a big impact on the local community, employing over 1,400 people. Environmental lead exists a great danger—not just to public health in general, but more specifically to the health of young children.
Recently, Trail rolled out new steps to combat lead pollution, including an initiative specifically designed to lessen the prevalence of lead dust in the air. Since 2012, this effort has deployed heavily in the most polluted neighborhoods and largely accomplished an 80 percent drop in annual mean ambient lead levels. Further, when Teck built a new KIVCET smelter in 1997, this led to an astounding 99.5 percent reduction in emissions. Despite these efforts, fears of lead exposure are still widespread.
It quadruples investments to monitor children’s blood lead levels, protecting their health and future. Those blood test results in 2024 were nothing short of shocking for children under 3 years old. Their mean lead blood level was 2.2 microgram/decilitre. Meghan Morris, a representative from THEP, stated that “the lowest level possible for each individual child is what our program strives for, so we do education and support to all families living in the greater Trail area.”
Toddlers and infants are particularly vulnerable to lead exposure. They often explore by crawling on the ground and placing their hands in their mouths, further exposing them to risk. Bruce Lanphear is a health sciences professor at Simon Fraser University. As someone who studied the effects of lead poisoning, Dr. Needleman spoke of long term observable effects from levels of lead even below what we typically consider acceptable.
“We can see effects down below one microgram per decilitre.” – Bruce Lanphear
Lanphear emphasized the role of low-level lead poisoning in producing various health issues. Children suffer IQ deficits and an increased risk of ADHD-like behaviors as a consequence. He noted concerning trends related to pregnant women, stating that “with very small increases in blood lead, an increased risk of pre-term birth” has been observed.
The community of Trail faces a complex dilemma: how to mitigate the health risks associated with lead exposure while sustaining its economy, which heavily relies on the smelter industry.
“It’s a real challenge I think for communities like this because they are very dependent economically on these industries.” – Bruce Lanphear
As a leading mining and metals company, Teck is deeply committed to reducing emissions and improving air quality. Yet the tension between protecting public health and promoting economic stability continues. A British Columbia judge sentenced Teck a few weeks ago to pay $3.4 million in fines for polluting the Columbia River. This ruling further spotlights the continued environmental harm associated with industrial activities in the tri-state area.
