Rachel Abrams

What about the other question, the question about what kind of medical harm was being caused to the people in these towns in Nigeria by this lead poisoning?

Right.

My God.

At that level of contamination, what kind of health effects would you expect immediately?

So what happened after you did all this testing?

So it sounds like the Nigerian government took pretty swift action.

And presumably, it's fair to say that the Nigerian government knows that it probably should be doing a lot more than just handing out gloves and goggles if it wants to protect people, given the high levels of lead that is showing up in these test results, right?

I do just wonder, though, given your experience covering global supply chains, knowing what the incentives are for the various actors here, knowing how hard it is to reform an entire industry, how confident are you that in five years or 10 years or however long, somebody will be able to purchase a car in the United States and feel confident that the battery in that car was made in a safe and humane way?

Under the guise of safety, perhaps, right?

Like, there's consumer pressure, and then they say, we're going to make these reforms, then the end result is what you're talking about.

Correct.

Let's just say for the sake of argument, though, that in this case, in terms of battery recycling, that every player involved wants to do this the right way.

They want to make a safe battery and make it in an environmentally friendly way.

What would the increase in cost of that battery to the end buyer actually look like?

Peter, thank you so much.

In the days following publication of the Joint Times investigation, Nigerian officials once again closed down several smelters in the Ogijo region.

Officials also promised new investigations from the federal government and said they would conduct additional blood testing of local residents.

We'll be right back.

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