Frontera NorteSur May 2001

Rosalba Magallón de González, president of DIF Baja California, said that Paped funds can be used for such things as transporting minors back to their place of origin, paying for urgent surgeries, paying for special medical operations, buying wheel chairs or hearing aides or repairing the roofs on homes.

Rincón indicated that while such problems would have been dealt with in the past help would have come through donations. Now that DIF has its own funds and program those in need can be aided much more quickly. The DIF will also now be able to help more people, she said.

Laws Uncertain, Tijuana Woman Misses Kidney Transplant for Second Time

On April 4, 2001 a 22-year old woman was hit by a vehicle and taken to the hospital. Two days later she was determined to be brain dead.

While the woman's family was initially hesitant to donate the woman's organs they asked officials to whom they would be going. When the family heard about the case of Elizabeth Méndez Mungaray, who has suffered from kidney illness for eleven years and has lived without the organs for three years, they gave their permission.

However, problems arose when the Baja California PGJE (Procuraduría General de Justicia del Estado, State Attorney General's Office) said that it was unable to authorize the procedure which would prematurely terminate the life of the donor. The PGJE has asked the BC Congress to write clearer legislation that would outline the PGJE's responsibilities and duties in these situations.

Méndez was close to receiving a kidney transplant on February 26, 2001 but permission from the PGJE took so long to get to doctors that the kidney was wasted. On March 16 the PGJE responded to the situation by saying that it would allow a kidney to be taken in the future and that the resultant operation would serve to force changes in the law.

Méndez told Frontera that she now feels hopeless because she has been fooled so many times. She also stated that her health problems are getting worse the longer she waits for her transplant.

Source: Frontera, April 10, 2001. Article by Ana Cecilia Ramírez.

Specialist Hospital to Open in Tijuana

A regional hospital that will provide the services of medical specialists is scheduled to open in Tijuana at the end of April, according to Aureliano Cruz Monreal of the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (Mexican Social Security Institute, IMSS). The IMSS provides most of Mexico's hospital services.

The hospital will offer 29 fields of specialized medical treatments lacking only nuclear medicine and heart surgery. Among the services offered will be such things as retina surgery, neurosurgery, intensive neonatal therapy, dialysis, and chemotherapy. The hospital will have an MRI machine to aid in the resolution of various medical conditions.

The hospital cost the equivalent of US$64 million to build. It will employ 1,500 people.

Source: Frontera (Tijuana), April 2, 2001. Article by Ana Cecilia Ramírez.

Illegal Pesticide Sales Continue in Cd. Juárez, Vendor Speaks

El Diario states that at least 40 side-walk vendors near the Cuauhtémoc market are still illegally selling pesticide known as "polvo de avión" (air plane dust). The pesticide, not identified by its brand name, is a yellow, odorless powder intended only for agricultural application.

City health officials began a campaign against the substance last week and have prohibited its sale because of the effects it can have on humans. Exposure to the pesticide can result in blurred vision, chills, dizziness and neurological damage.

Jesús García, who sells the pesticide from the sidewalk at the Cuauhtémoc market, told El Diario that he sells the substance because there is a demand for it, "we don't force anyone to buy it--people come and ask us for it."

"We get by selling this, I work so that my children will not have to do this . . . I work so that my children can study and won't have to do this, " García said. He sells ten to fifteen baggies of the pesticide on a good day and four or seven on a slow day making as much as US$16. To put this in perspective workers in Ciudad Juárez assembly plants known as maquiladoras make US$4 or $5 per day.

García believes that local authorities should worry about other matters, "there's the case of the missing women or why don't they focus more on schools and not a little group of vendors . . . On the outskirts of town there are dead dogs, burning garbage, why don't they give more attention to this?"

Source: El Diario, April 9, 2001. Article by Martín Cortés.

Juárez Vendors Selling Dangerous Pesticide to Public

The Ciudad Juárez Commerce Department (Dirección de Comercio Municipal) has begun seizing pesticide that is intended only for agricultural application but that is being sold to the general public in unlabeled bags by stores throughout the city.

The pesticide is sold as "polvo de avión" (air plane dust) and is a yellow, odorless powder. Officials did not indicate the brand name of the pesticide that is advertised in stores as being effective against cockroaches.

In addition to seizing the pesticide a number of local, state and federal health and environment offices and departments have joined together in an educational campaign against the use of such pesticides in the home.

Government agencies like Profepa (Procuraduría Federal de Protección al Ambiente, the Mexican equivalent of the EPA in the US) have stated that exposure to the pesticide can result in blurred vision, chills, dizziness and neurological damage.

Source: El Norte, April 4, 2001. Article by Gabriel Simental. El Diario, April 4, 2001. Article by Martín Cortés.