Thursday, March 23, 2006

New center to study border 'green' problems

CLAUDINE LoMONACO

Tucson Citizen

The University of Arizona has received a $1.7 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to fund a U.S-Mexico center to help clean the environment along the border.

"Pollutants know no boundaries," said A. Jay Gandolfi, a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Arizona. "If we don't clean up on both sides of our border, then we will contaminate each other."

Gandolfi will direct the newly founded U.S.-Mexico Binational Center for Environmental Science and Toxicology at a site to be determined.

The grant, together with an additional $450,000 from Arizona, will help the university substantially expand its environmental border work, Gandolfi said.

He said the center's first research project will investigate safety issues of landfills and mines, both of which leach toxic materials. It will also examine the connection between arsenic and breast cancer incidence along the border.

The center is designed to build Mexico's capacity to address environmental and health risks, especially those involving arsenic and other metals produced in mining activities. The United States has considerable resources to do the work, Gandolfi said.

"What we're missing," he said, "is the equivalent amount of people and infrastructure on the south side of the border. This is going to help us develop equal expertise north and south of the border."

The project will involve about 40 people from both countries and will create fellowships for six Ph.D. and three post-doctoral positions for Mexican scientists at UA.