Exposures to some levels of hydrogen sulfide in outdoor air near the sewage-laced Tijuana River are a public health hazard, according to a new report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
In a 72-page report released Wednesday, the agency concluded that short-term exposure to the sewer gas can lead to health effects such as headaches, cough, nausea and shortness of breath. But longer-term exposures, defined as two weeks or more, and chronic exposures, or at least one year, are not expected to cause harm to people’s health beyond those symptoms.
The federal public agency, which works alongside the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, analyzed more than 800,000 air measurements collected between September 2024 and May 2025 at four monitoring sites in South County…