March 14, 1977
El Paso City-County Board of Health after lengthy discussion voted Wednesday not to intervene in the importation of tortillas made in Juarez and sold in El Paso.
County Commissioner, Richard Telles who said he represented 16 bakers in the county, brought the matter before the board.
The commissioner complained of the economic impact and alleged health hazards brought to the United States when the tortillas cross the Rio Grande.
“Our people in El Paso cannot compete with Mexican tortilla manufacturers,” Telles said, saying Mexican brands under sell El Paso ones by as much as 20 cents per dozen.
Telles’ words were echoed by local bakery representatives Ted Rallis, manager and stockholder of La Tapatia, Inc.; Alberto Viescas, president of Mexi-Snax Corp.; and Hector Daya, of La Peria Bakery.
One baker spoke of unsightly conditions at one Juarez tortilla plant. “I probably wouldn’t stay in business one minute if my plant was allowed to be so dirty,” he said.
For example, he said, sanitary facilities at the plant were “negative,” that there was only one restroom, and that he saw no health cards for any of the workers.
Rallis said there have been confirmed cases of insects, or parts of insects, being found in Mexican tortillas.
Telles argued because the minimum wage in Mexico is much lower than in the United States, the plants across the river have an “unfair economic advantage.”
However, Dr. Bernard Rosenblum, El Paso city-county health director, and Jim Mowery, resident investigator for the federal Food and Drug Administration, disputed the allegations of unhealthy conditions of the tortillas.
Mowery, whose job is to inspect imported commodities, said lab samples for the tortillas had found them to adequately pass federal standards and regulation.
Rosenblum read a lab report from the Texas department of Health Resources that reported finding two rodent hairs in a tortilla made by an El Paso company, but that other test found no contaminates in either El Paso or Juarez tortillas.
Telles again argued, however, that Mexican businesses enjoy much fewer health restrictions than El Paso companies, and for that reason something should be done to equalize the situation.
Dr. Lea Hutchinson, deputy health director, said he felt the matter could best be addressed by the federal government, as opposed to the city or county trying to resolve it.
“It would be awfully high-and-mighty of us to expect to go over there and inspect their facilities when we wouldn’t allow them to come over here and inspect ours,” Hutchinson said.
The board voted 3-1 not to interfere in the matter, with Dr. William G. McGee, board vice chairman, casting the no vote.
“I wanted further definition and data,” McGee said, when questioned after the meeting on his vote.”
He said he could not go along with Rosenblum’s statement that the tortillas did not pose a health hazard, because he felt there had been little or no communication between city county, state, and federal health officials.
“That tends to discredit his opinion, I think,” McGee added.
In other business, board members heard a report from Jan Dreher, representing Reproductive Services, Inc., concerning placement of information about family planning services at the health department’s clinics.
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