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Peruvian Religious Leaders Implore Doe Run Owner Ira Rennert to Help Thousands of Lead-Poisoned Children in La Oroya, Peru. Doe Run and Renco Corporation Refuse to Meet.

June 6, 2007. A group of Peru’s leading religious leaders will meet next Friday with the president of Doe Run Peru (DRP) to propose an ethical solution to the health crisis in La Oroya and to prevent further contamination of Peru’s Mantaro River Valley.

Contamination produced by DRP operations has had a negative impact on the health of thousands of children and pregnant women who live near the company’s smelter in La Oroya.

The meeting marks the first stop in an unprecedented international, interfaith pilgrimage to St. Louis, MO and later to New York to implore Doe Run owner, Ira Rennert, to invest in the proper technology to update company operations in Peru. The DRP smelter emits more than 2 million pounds of sulfur dioxide, lead, arsenic, and other toxins every day. Doe Run Resources Company profits in 2006 were between $125-150 million, according to company documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Rennert, apart from making large donations to religious and charitable causes, finances the Torah Ethics Project which promotes ethical values in the U.S. Jewish community.

Among those attending the meeting with the Doe Run Peru president, Juan Carlos Huyhua, are Monsignor Pedro Barreto, the archbishop of Huancayo and coordinator of the State of Junín Roundtable on Environmental Concerns; Rev. Rafael Goto, the president of the National Council of Protestant Churches of Peru; Sister Adele Human, a Dominican Sister; and Rev. Pedro Bullón, the president of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Peru. “Given the $150 million profit of the Doe Run Company last year, Mr. Rennert has the opportunity to significantly reduce contamination, thereby improving the health of thousands of children and families,” said Monsignor Barreto, leader of the religious delegation. Msgr. Barreto added, “The purpose of our meeting today with Dr. Huyhua is to inform him of our trip to the United States to meet with Mr. Rennert, who is precisely the person who can do the most to help solve the current crisis.”

In spite of numerous civil suits, fines, and a decision by Peru’s Constitutional Tribunal last May, DRP’s lead, arsenic and sulphuric acid emissions have actually increased in the last two years, according to a report published last week by LABOR, a Peruvian non-profit group. But even if DRP complied with Peru’s relatively lax air quality standards, a study by Dr. Perry Gottsfeld of Occupational Knowledge International shows that by 2011, Doe Run arsenic and lead emissions in La Oroya will still be 1245 and 11 times, respectively, that of its smelter in Herculaneum, Missouri. “This is why we are appealing to Mr. Rennert as a man of religious conviction”, noted CONEP President Rafael Goto. “He is widely known as a pious believer and philanthropist”

This Sunday, Msgr. Barreto, Rev. Goto, and Elías Szczytnicki, a member of the Israeli Union of Peru and the secretary of Peru’s national Interfaith Commission, will travel to St Louis to meet with the representatives of the Doe Run Company. On Wednesday, they will travel to New York to meet with Ira Rennert, the President and CEO of the Renco Corporation, the majority holder of DRP. Both Doe Run Resources and the Renco Corporation have refused to meet with the Peruvian religious leaders, claiming that DRP is a company that was founded under Peruvian laws, with responsibilities that are limited to Peru.

Movement for Health of La Oroya (MOSAO) and Technical Roundtable
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