Mexico City, Mexico - A UN expert has warned in an interview that Mexico is facing a "toxic" environmental crisis due to policies in Washington that have turned the country into a "garbage sink" for the US.

The UN's Special Rapporteur on Toxics and Human Rights, Marcos Orellana, told The Guardian that pollutants carried down from the US, including waste and harmful pesticides, are endangering people's lives in Mexico.

"Where standards are weak, what you get is legalized pollution," Orellana said. "US over consumption and economic activity are using Mexico as a garbage sink."

Orellana said the importing of hazardous and plastic waste from the US is making the situation even worse, and warned that American factories and farms are contaminating drinking water that is flowing downstream into Mexico.

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Orellana's comments come after he conducted an 11-day investigative mission to Mexico in March, during which he discovered that lax environmental standards under consecutive US administrations have allowed the issue to worsen.

It's gotten to the point that US pollution has created more than 1000 contaminated locations, which are recorded in Mexico's National Inventory of Contaminated Sites.

Many of these areas have become classified as "sacrifice zones," where it is normal for residents to be left with severe health conditions and complications, such as cancers and miscarriages.

"As I heard during one meeting: Living in a sacrifice zone means losing the right to die of old age," Orellana said, before referring to the situation as the "legalized poisoning of people."

"Families consider it normal for children to have constant coughing," said Guadalupe Rodríguez, the director of a network of childcare centers in Monterrey.

Rodríguez called on President Claudia Sheinbaum's government to do more, explaining that "the right to health is not being guaranteed" to those who live in polluted areas.