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October 31, 2006

UK: A hidden danger comes to light after chemical leak closes the river Humber to shipping

PAUL PHARE, BHOPAL.NET, OCTOBER 31, 2006

Humber skippers were ordered to haul to for fear of breathing corrosive gas PHOTO: WIEBE POSTHUMA

BHOPAL NET EXCLUSIVE

A curious reticence attends the reporting of the leak of a large quantity of titanium tetrachloride from "a chemical factory" in Stallingborough in North-East Lincolnshire.

The leak was serious enough to have caused local authorities to halt shipping on the Humber river, but not even the BBC reported its source, which was Millenium Inorganic Chemicals, owned by US chemical giant Lyondell.

A spokesman at Humber Chemical Focus, an industry body representing many dozen chemical companies clustered around the estuary said that investigations into the leak had barely begun, that there were no reports so far of any injuries and that the amount of titanium tetrachloride gas that escaped was "in the low hundreds of kilograms".

Titanium tetrachloride, TiCl4, is an intermediate in the manufacture of titanium dioxide, a whitening agent widely used in paints and pigments. It is an unusual example of a liquid metal halide, and it fumes spectacularly in air. TiCl4 is also called, light-heartedly, 'Tickle' or 'Tickle-four' by those that use this chemical. Despite this gentle pet name the chemical is extremely corrosive, combining explosively with water to release hydrochloric acid, HCl. The dense white, light-scattering clouds it forms on contact with water were once used in naval smokescreens, but the use of TiCl4 was discontinued because of its extreme corrosiveness.

Inhaling titanium tetrachloride can cause damage to the eyes and lungs. According to the US The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), persons with bronchitis, pneumoconiosis, bronchial asthma, pulmonary tuberculosis, and diseases of the upper respiratory tract are at risk because of the toxic nature of titanium tetrachloride fumes. (Source: ATSDR advisory)

Humber Chemical Focus publishes an emergency advice booklet for people living in Stallingborough which contains the following bland reassurance about Millenium Inorganic Chemicals:

In the unlikely event of a major emergency, the site has an established and effective emergency plan, combined with the experience and trained personnel, the impact on people and the environment will be minimal. The major hazard to people is from the airborne release of titanium tetrachloride and chlorine fume. Although a release of either of these substances is extremely unlikely, such a release could result in a gas cloud that could be harmful if breathed in.

When questioned, the Humber Chemical Focus spokesman appeared to have little idea of what had or had not been done to warn local people, and referred enquirers to the company's website. Searches of the Lyondell and Millenium websites revealed no reference to the incident, nor any instructions and advice to those who might have been affected.

Responsible Care?

Millenium Inorganic Chemicals says it regards the chemical industry's "Responsible Care" programme as so important that it has its own section on the company's website. In March 1998 the company also began a B-Safe training programme among staff. However just over a year later it was taken to court by the UK Health & Safety Executive for two separate safety offences and was fined a total of £60,000. There is no mention of these breaches in the company's "Responsible Care" report which, published in 2002, is now four years out of date.

In the United States Millenium Inorganic Chemicals is implicated in a lawsuit filed by the State of Rhode Island against paint manufacturers who used lead in their products, thus exposing families to the risk of lead poisoning. In a landmark victory for the families, the companies, including Millenium were found liable for poisoning thousands of children.

The danger of dioxins

In 2003 the US Environment Protection Agency [EPA] listed two Millenium Inorganic Chemicals sites among the top 10 chemical facilities releasing dioxins and dioxin-like compounds into the environment. (Source: "Walking the Talk", report by PACE/United Steelworkers of America)

The Millenium factory at Stallingborough on the Humber provides a chart of its emissions to the environment over the period 1997-2002. The chart shows a steady increase of emissions to land but does not say what these, or the emissions to air and water, contained.

It is important to know what was in these emissions. A DuPont factory in California using the "dirty chlorine process" also used by Millenium to make titanium dioxide, was found to have lethally contaminated the surrounding environment:

DuPont closed a TiO2 plant in Oakley, California around 1997. State regulators discovered the soil and ground water at the site is contaminated with many contaminants proven to cause cancer in laboratory animals. Contaminants include CFCs and lead from the production of banned substances, Freon and tetraethyl lead. Currently, DuPont is making a deal to erect a $200 million TiO2 facility in the Shandong province in China, which is expected to employ 400 Chinese workers.69 DuPont also has a TiO2 plant in Altamira, Mexico. DuPont’s “extraordinarily dirty process” (using chlorine) once conducted in Oakley, may also result in dioxin contamination at these foreign sites and could soon be transferred to China.(ibid)

In the light of these precedents, the investigation at Millenium Inorganic Chemicals in Stallingborough should not be confined to the recent leak of titanium tetrachloride, but should extend to a thorough examination of air, soil and water surrounding the site for the presence of deadly dioxins.

Posted by bhola at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

England: Humber shipping in gas-cloud alert

Mark Branagan, Yorkshire Post, October 30, 2006

Shipping entering the Humber was put on chemical alert early yesterday for the first time in a number of years after a leak from a factory created a gas cloud over the river.

An operation involving Humber Coastguard, police and the fire service swung into action in the early hours when a quarter of a tonne of titanium tetrachloride – a known irritant – escaped from a pipeline at Stallingborough, which makes white pigment for the paint industry. As a plume formed over the mouth of the Humber, the coastguard scrambled a helicopter from RAF Leconfield to search the river as a precaution. But it was realised that because the gas is lighter than air, it was rising and breaking up.

Everything was back to normal by 5am, but a Humber Coastguard spokesman said such incidents were rare and this was the first alert of its kind in five or six years.

Boats were not turned away from the Humber but their masters were advised to keep all non-essential crew below decks during the passage down the river.

Those who had to work in the open air were warned to cover their faces with a handkerchief if they experienced coughing or any other discomfort. But no incidents of ilness were reported.

A spokesman continued: "There were a couple of vessels possibly delayed but due to the state of the tide there was not much movement in the river at that hour."

Such incidents required a co-ordinated response because potentially they could have "dire consequences". But in this case the concentration of the gas, even if it had come into contact with anyone, would have caused nothing more than some mild respiratory irritation, the spokesman added.

The fire service said the incident at Stallingborough involved a leak of a quarter of a tonne of titanium tetrachloride from a pipeline. The leak was isolated at valve and foam blanket laid to cover spillage by works personnel.

Titanium tetrachloride is known to be very irritating to the eyes, skin, mucous membranes, and the lungs.

Posted by bhola at 09:09 AM | Comments (0)

Humber estuary, England: Chemical leak halts fishing vessel movements

FishUpdate.com, October 30, 2006

FISHING vessels, and other shipping, have finally been allowed back into the Humber Estuary, following a potentially dangerous chemical leak from a factory on the Humber Bank, near Grimsby.

Humber Coastguard vessels halted all shipping as a precaution for a number of hours, until the gas had cleared. The chemical leak in a pipe was sealed by staff at the Stallingborough plant, while firefighters stood by, Humberside Fire and Rescue Service said.

The fire fighters waited while engineers from the plant successfully sealed the leak. No-one was injured in the incident, which was first reported in the early hours of Saturday morning, the Coastguard said.

The incident is not thought likely to affect the arrival of Icelandic fish containers, vital to providing supplies to the two Humber fish markets.

Last week supplies of fish to the region were badly disrupted when the normal container ship deliveries were delayed by exceptionally bad weather.

The Humber Bank has one of the heaviest concentrations of chemical plants in the country, close to many of the major Grimsby fish processing plants. This has long been a been a source of concern for the local food industry.

Over a decade ago, the food and fish processing industry successfully joined local people in fighting off a plan to establish a nuclear waste dump on the Humber Bank, claiming companies would relocate to other parts of the country.

www.fishupdate.com is published by Special Publications. Special Publications also publish FISHupdate magazine, Fish Farmer, the Fish Industry Yearbook, the Scottish Seafood Processors Federation Diary, the Fish Farmer Handbook and a range of wallplanners.

Posted by bhola at 09:01 AM | Comments (0)

October 30, 2006

Massachusetts: Families face 'long journey' to prove cancer link

DARRYL R. ISHERWOOD, NEW JERSEY TIMES, OCTOBER 29, 2006

HAMILTON -- When attorney Jan Schlichtmann sued corporate polluters in Woburn, Mass., 20 years ago, he told his clients they needed to be patient if they hoped to prove that their children were poisoned by contaminated water.

By the time the case was settled, Schlichtmann had spent more than 10 years and several million dollars on the lawsuit, which pitted eight Woburn families against three corporations that had allegedly poisoned the community's water supply, causing leukemia in several residents.

Reached Friday at his Massachusetts home, the attorney -- who became famous when he was profiled in the book "A Civil Action" and a movie of the same name -- had similar advice for Hamilton residents seeking to prove that hundreds of cases of cancer in their neighborhood are related to contamination from the former Mercer Rubber factory.

"It's a long journey," the attorney said. "Proving (a cancer cluster) is a long process that requires a tremendous amount of energy and commitment by the community."

Though they have not spoken to Schlichtmann, who was also instrumental in proving that several cases of childhood cancer in Toms River were related to contaminated water, residents of the neighborhoods around the former Mercer Rubber site already have begun to follow the lead of the Woburn and Toms River families.

Last week, about a dozen neighbors of the former plant, which operated on Mercer Street in Hamilton Square for 130 years, took matters into their own hands and began a door-to-door survey to determine how many of their neighbors have been diagnosed with cancer.

The grassroots survey was sparked by a recent report by the federal Agency for Toxic Substance Disease Registry and state health officials that looked at cancer cases in about a one-mile radius around the plant diagnosed between 1979 until 2002.

The study concluded that though rates of some forms of cancer were elevated, the 1,141 total cases in the area were in line with state averages and not elevated as residents had long suspected.

The study led officials to believe that cancer in the area was likely not a result of contamination from Mercer Rubber as neighbors had feared, despite reports from former employees that chemical waste from the plant was dumped on a nearby property that later became Sayen Gardens.

The plant, which closed in 1993, was known to use benzene, a known cause of leukemia, as well as trichloroethylene, the same contaminant in the Woburn wells.

The report left the residents unconvinced, and many, including Liz Chiorello, who survived breast cancer, are still searching for answers.

"There are still a lot of questions," she said. "We know something is wrong here, but we don't know what."

Chiorello and others met recently with representatives of the state health department, who told them they were willing to continue studying the area. Three years of new data from the state cancer registry are available and the officials said they would add those to the initial study, which took into account cancer cases from 1979 to 2001.

And while health officials confirmed Friday they are confident in the findings of the initial report, they have agreed to narrow the scope of the study to the streets closest to the former rubber factory at the request of residents, who felt the initial report took in too broad of an area.

For the first time since she first took notice of what she thought was an inordinate number of cancer cases in her neighborhood, Chiorello said she feels like answers might be on the horizon.

"I really feel comfortable that they truly are interested," Chiorello said. "Nobody would come out and say, 'Yes, there is a problem,' but this is the first time I felt that, yes, they are truly committed to getting us more information. I truly felt they were all interested and all willing to work together to help us."

After the initial study was released, several residents questioned the methods used by state and federal health officials and many cited friends and neighbors who had moved from the area before being diagnosed with cancer.

How could citizens be sure that the study was accurate, they asked, when hundreds of people had moved from the area and many more were diagnosed long before 1979, when the state's cancer registry was formed?

Officials answered that though the study was constrained by the weaknesses pointed out by Chiorello and her neighbors, they believed it was accurate.

Unfortunately, Schlichtmann said, the Hamilton residents' concerns are all too familiar. In both Woburn and Toms River, neighbors were initially told the cases of cancer were not related to pollution or that a relationship could not be proved. Only through grit and determination, he said, did they finally get people to take notice, but in each case, answers took years to find.

"To ignore (the possible cancer cluster) is definitely an inclination for government officials who have a lot to do and little resources," he said. "They need to be convinced."

And there are other factors, the attorney said, that enter into the equation.

"More times than we would like to admit it's a political decision and not a scientific one to continue studying a site," Schlichtmann said. "There is pressure from industry and business and real estate interests. All of that was experienced by the families in Woburn and Toms River."

But Chiorello and her neighbors seem to be on the right track, Schlichtmann said. Key to continuing the fight is partnering with state and local officials and presenting their case for further study.

"If they form relationships with federal, state and local officials that are based on trust and confidence and they make reasonable requests, they hopefully will have the opportunity to get their questions answered in a reasonable way, but it ain't easy," he said.

Some residents are pragmatic about the cause. Lisa Glodowski, whose daughter Jessica was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 1998 at the age of 2, said residents may never know what caused the cancers.

"Right now, we don't know where it came from," Glodowski said. "We don't really even have a starting point yet. I hope we do find something if there is something out there. I think people are anxious to go forward and see where this takes us."

Contact Darryl Isherwood at Disherwood@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5708.

Posted by bhola at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

State says hundreds likely sickened by toxic chemical

Associated Press, October 30, 2006

FAIRBURN, Ga. - An industrial waste plant is likely responsible for sickening more than 600 residents in Fairburn and nearby communities by exposing them to a toxic chemical used in crop pesticides, according to the Georgia Department of Human resources.

A survey issued last week by the department shows consistent symptoms among those polled - including headaches, sore throats and nausea - after the Philip Services Corp. plant released a noxious odor into the air in June. The culprit was propyl mercaptan, a substance used to give an offensive smell to otherwise odorless, highly toxic chemicals.

The smell has been blamed for hundreds of illnesses in residents and the death of some pets.

According to DHR surveys of 622 residents of Fairburn and Fayetteville, 96 percent reported symptoms such as headaches (74 percent), burning eyes (58 percent), coughs or sore throats (54 percent), nausea (49 percent) and difficulty breathing (45 percent). Of those surveyed, 187 people sought medical attention.

Since then, Fairburn and several other small communities in the area have passed resolutions calling for the plant to move. The state Environmental Protection Division has ordered the plant to refuse any more shipments of the smelly chemical.

So far PSC has been fined $100,000 for violations connected with the odor.

Still, plant officials say while the smell was inconvenient, there is no proof it caused residents to get sick.

"We have worked diligently to remove all traces of propyl mercaptan and ethoprop from the plant," said Paul Butsavage, area operations manager for PSC. "While the odors may have been a nuisance, there is no scientific evidence that proves the odors were a health hazard."

Residents say the odor - which smells like strong onions or garlic - persists even five months later.

Connie Biemiller of the South Fulton and Fayette Community Task Force, a citizens group formed to solve the problem, said the smell is so obvious that "my dog won't even go outside," and that she's noticing dead birds and other creatures.

Fairburn is about 20 miles Southwest of Atlanta.

Posted by bhola at 10:36 PM | Comments (0)

October 29, 2006

20 years down, bombs to go: construction near for weapons-destroying plant

PETER MATHEWS, CENTRAL KENTUCKY BUREAU, OCTOBER 26, 2006

A bridge at Blue Grass Amry Depot was built to serve the chemical neutralization plant. The plant won't be in full operation until at least 2012; it will have about 900 employees during the peak of its operation. Photo: Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass

RICHMOND - It's not your typical groundbreaking, seeing as how it happened last month, miles away, and the 300 or so guests this morning will be watching it on tape.

It will be a big celebration anyway, because today marks the beginning of the end of a 20-year struggle to rid Madison County of its weapons of mass destruction.

So, at 10 a.m. in an Eastern Kentucky University ballroom, U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell and local politicians, military leaders, project officials and activists will welcome a $2 billion chemical neutralization plant that will employ hundreds of people and change the face of Madison's industrial economy.

More important, it will destroy 523 tons of lethal nerve and blister agent stored at Blue Grass Army Depot, some of it since World War II.

Stringent security measures at the depot meant it wasn't feasible to hold the ceremony there.

Craig Williams, director of the Chemical Weapons Working Group, toured the site recently and, even though it's a 35-acre bare patch of ground, found it stirring.

"When you work this long on something that's always been in the abstract, to see actual progress was a great moment," said Williams, who has made chemical weapons and other environmental issues his life's work -- first fighting the Army's plan to incinerate the weapons, then working with McConnell and others to try to keep neutralization on track.

Design to be ready in 2007

No one can say precisely when the first rocket will meet its maker. That will depend on when money is available, among other things. The current estimate is that destruction could begin in mid-2012 and end in mid-2014.

The design will not be completed until late in 2007, said Chris Haynes, project manager for Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass, the contractor.

And although most of the processes have been used before, seven first-of-a-kind components will have to be tested, he noted.

One potential change in the plans could delay the work.

It involves hydrolysates, the liquid waste stream from neutralization. The plan calls for the hydrolysates to be broken down into simple chemical compounds through a process called supercritical water oxidation -- what one project official has likened to a pressure cooker.

However, after the Pentagon ordered that hundreds of millions of dollars be cut from the project, officials downsized the plant and studied more than 50 cost-cutting measures. One of those was a proposal to ship the wastes out of state instead of treating them here.

A plan to ship hydrolysates from Newport, Ind., to a duPont facility in New Jersey has run into fierce opposition. Moreover, Kentucky environmental officials warned the Army this past summer that the change could jeopardize its permit for research, development and testing at the plant.

If the Army has to go through the permitting process again, it could delay the project three years or more, the state said. A decision from the Army is not expected until next year.

Public stops early plan

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Army's plans to incinerate the chemical weapons made Madison County a battleground. Hundreds of people attended public meetings and berated Army officials.

Guy Patrick sang.

Patrick turned Everything's Up to Date in Kansas City, a song from the musical Oklahoma!, into an incinerator protest song. He sang it for Army officials before hundreds of people at Clark-Moores Middle School.

"I remember feeling at the time the hopelessness of it all," said Patrick, former head of the local Habitat for Humanity chapter. He recalled thinking, "We don't stand a chance here."

But depot spokesman Dave Easter said it was the "public speaking-averse" Army engineers who were at a disadvantage. It was hard to get their highly technical points across when incineration opponents could send children to the microphone to say things like, "Can you promise that you won't kill my mommy?"

"Community opposition in Kentucky is particularly strong and well organized," a 1990 report from the General Accounting Office said. "The presence of such organized opposition ... could impede the successful completion of the stockpile disposal program by April 1997."

That it did. Under pressure from McConnell, other members of Congress and the public, the Pentagon agreed in 2002 to chemically neutralize the weapons instead of burning them. The decision united the former opponents, who now communicate smoothly through a citizens' advisory board that includes all sides.

The completion deadline -- originally 1994 -- is history, too. Incinerators in Utah, Alabama and Arkansas are now on a pace to complete chemical destruction in 2016. A plant in Oregon won't be done until 2017.

Litigation, fires, other technical problems and delays in funding have beset the program, which saw its cost balloon from about $1.8 billion to more than $32 billion.

An international treaty calls for destruction to be completed by April 2007, with a possible extension to April 2012. With only 40.7 percent of the U.S. stockpile destroyed, neither deadline will be met. But Russia, which has a bigger stockpile, is even further behind.

Work force still in school

The new plant will employ nearly 900 people at its peak, which should last about three years. Much of its technology will be robotic, and it will not be easy to find the highly skilled chemists, engineers and control room operators needed to run the plant.

In fact, officials from the incinerator site in Pine Bluff, Ark., came to Madison County this past spring with an offer: Come work for us so you can return to Kentucky with training for a potentially more important position later. Eight people applied and four were accepted, said Ron Hawley, operations general manager for Bechtel Parsons Blue Grass.

The bulk of the hiring for the plant here won't occur for about five years, he said.

That means some potential workers are in middle or high school now, so project officials are working with EKU, the University of Kentucky and county schools.

Rob Rumpke, a member of the citizens' advisory board, said officials hope to develop an industrial skills academy, not just to train chemical plant workers, but also to make sure the county has a trained work force for other industries once the weapons are gone.

Reach Peter Mathews at (859) 231-3113, 1-800-950-6397 or pmathews@herald-leader.com.

Posted by bhola at 07:45 PM | Comments (0)

Addition of vitrification plant stacks changes Hanford's skyline

Annette Cary, Tri-City Herald, October 28th, 2006

Hanford vitrification plant workers secure 130-foot stack

The skyline at Hanford's vitrification plant changed Friday.

Bechtel National spent about four hours slowing lifting 125 tons of emission stacks 70 feet into the air to place them on top of the plant's Low Activity Waste Facility.

"This is the first time we'll see LAW looking like it will always look," said Mike Lewis, manager of construction for Department of Energy contractor Bechtel National.

The building stands 70 feet tall and the 130-foot emission stacks bring the structure to 200 feet tall, about the height of a 17-story building.

The $12.2 billion vitrification plant is being built to immobilize Hanford's worst radioactive waste inside glass logs for permanent disposal. The Low Activity Waste Facility will be the third-largest of the four large buildings at the plant, which will be surrounded by 25 support buildings.

The plant is planned to treat much of the 53 million gallons of radioactive and hazardous chemical waste now stored in underground tanks. It's left from separating plutonium from irradiated fuel rods to produce plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons program from World War II through the Cold War.

Wastes will be separated at the Pretreatment Facility into low-activity radiation and high-level radiation components. The low-activity radiation waste will contain mostly hazardous chemicals with as much of the radioactive constituents removed as possible.

High-level radiation wastes can emit up to 5,000 rems of radiation an hour as measured on contact with the outside of a stainless steel container. The low-activity waste can have 0.4 rems per hour. That's roughly the amount of natural background radiation a person would receive annually just by living in Washington state.

Silica and other glass-forming materials will be added to the waste and then the mixture will be melted to form glass.

That's part of the need for the stacks raised Friday.

Gas from the two melters in the Low Activity Waste Facility will be cleaned and then released from the stacks, along with other air from the building's ventilation system.

There's no comparison to what was released from Hanford's stacks during the plutonium production years, said Roy Schepens, manager of DOE's Hanford Office of River Protection.

Emissions from the Low Activity Waste Facility will be filtered to remove small particles and sent through a scrubber that will use steam to settle out heavier particles before the air is released from the stacks.

The air emissions will have to meet standards of the Washington State Department of Ecology, the State Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Regulatory permits have been approved for the design of the stacks, but they still must receive operating permits.

The stacks will handle more than 110,000 cubic feet of air per minute that will be monitored and sampled before leaving the facility once operations begin.

The stack assembly that was lifted Friday includes three individual emission stacks, each between 4 and 5 feet in diameter, encased in an open steel framework.

Bechtel National used two cranes to lift the stack assembly to a standing position. The smaller crane slowly crawled toward the larger one holding the bottom end of the stacks as the larger crane lifted from the top of the stacks until the assembly was suspended.

"Slow and easy," Lewis said as work began.

Then the 270-foot-tall crane lifted the stack assembly high enough to clear the building and swung it into place on the roof.

Bechtel National chose Friday for the lift because workers build at the site on 10-day shifts from Monday through Thursday. That cleared the area of all but 50 of the approximately 700 people usually at the construction site.

The contractor also carefully planned the lift with detailed drawings, computer calculations of the weight on both cranes, load tests of the components in the slings and a check of the credentials of those working on the project.

This week workers also finished the roofing and siding on the building. It's "dried in," as they say.

Now they'll continue work inside where it's warm and dry on electrical, heating and other systems, working toward a construction finish date for that building in 2012.

"If you go inside, it's starting to look like a plant," Schepens said.

Every day the look of the vitrification plant seems to change, said Dave Smith, president of the Central Washington Building and Construction Trades Council.

But "major milestones like today's add emphasis to the accomplishments," he said.

Posted by bhola at 07:43 PM | Comments (0)

Deadly waste shipped out of Ivory Coast to France

Peter Murphy, Reuters, October 28, 2006

ABIDJAN, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Tonnes of deadly toxic waste which killed 10 people and made thousands ill in Ivory Coast were shipped out of the West African country in sealed containers on Friday, bound for a treatment plant in France.

The poisonous chemical waste was dumped in August in open-air sites around Abidjan, economic capital of the world's top cocoa grower, after being unloaded from an oil tanker.

Thousands of Abidjan residents became ill with vomiting, diarrhoea, nosebleeds and nausea and 10 died in a health scandal which created an international outcry and forced the war-divided country's cabinet to resign before a reshuffle.

"I wouldn't say this is the end of it," said Safiatou Ba N'Daw, president of the government's toxic waste crisis committee as the boat sailed out of Abidjan port.

"I'd say it's more the beginning of the end now we have the first load now leaving. We're still cleaning up the soil here."

More than 140 reinforced containers carrying a mixture of the waste and contaminated earth were loaded on to the French-registered Toucan container ship for a 10-day journey to Europe.

A French company specialising in cleaning up hazardous waste, Tredi International, is carrying out the clean-up operation.

PUNGENT ODOUR

A pungent odour could be smelt emanating from the lower tier of the ship where sealed tanks were stowed. More were on the top deck.

The shipment was the first of four which will deliver the waste to a treatment centre in Salaise in southeast France. The French Ecology Ministry said on Friday the chemical residue would be treated over five months from mid-November.

Tredi spokesman Henri Petitgand said the company was in the final stages of the clean-up operation in Abidjan that began nearly six weeks ago.

Inquiries are still under way in Ivory Coast and Europe to find out how around 500 tonnes of the oil-based waste were dumped without any health or environmental precautions after they were unloaded from a Panamanian-registered tanker, Probo Koala, chartered by Dutch-based oil trader Trafigura.

Trafigura's director and West African regional chief have been detained in Abidjan and face charges under Ivorian toxic waste and poisoning laws.

The company denies any wrongdoing, saying it entrusted the load to a state-registered local waste disposal company.

This week a Dutch lawyer representing victims of the toxic waste demanded Trafigura pay 10 million euros ($12.66 million) as an advance on potential future damages and said the company would face court action if it did not pay within two weeks.

The lawyer, Bob van der Goen, said Trafigura should have known Ivory Coast did not have the necessary facilities to process the waste.

Charles Kouakou, a docker at Abidjan port, said he was pleased to see the waste shipped out. "People were killed so I'm pleased to see it go. I want to know who allowed this to happen and for them to be punished," he said.

Posted by bhola at 07:40 PM | Comments (0)

Goa: Cuncolim police seize liquid waste samples from factory

GOA HERALD, OCTOBER 28, 2006

MARGAO, OCT 28 — Cuncolim police on Saturday took samples of liquid and solid waste from the premises of a hazardous unit as anti-pollution activists claimed that the factory was allegedly caught discharging chemicals in violation of a High Court order.

What’s more, the activists questioned the role of Government agencies responsible for monitoring the units. They apprehended that many units — presently under a cloud of suspicion — may manipulate things before officials of NEERI, Nagpur come down to Cuncolim to check the pollution levels.

The anti-pollution activists claimed that they were maintaining a watch on the factory since early Saturday morning even as the Electricity Department restored power supply to the unit in view of the visit by experts on November 1.

“A pipe was connected to the factory to drain out some chemicals outside the premises,” claimed Oscar Martins.

Fearing trouble, the factory management called in the Cuncolim police as activists descended on the industrial estate in the morning. Following oral complaints from both sides, the police decided to take liquid samples from the site as a matter of ‘abundant’ caution.

Cuncolim police station commander PI Siddhant Shirodkar said that the samples will be handed over to the Goa Pollution Control Board for tests.

“If the report proves that the liquid sample is some chemical, the police will book the unit under the provisions of law,” Shirodkar maintained.

Meanwhile, Martins demanded to know whether the authorities — including the District Collector — are carrying out their duties while monitoring the polluting units. He disclosed plans to draw the attention of the High Court over the issue.

Posted by bhola at 07:37 PM | Comments (0)

October 28, 2006

Questions about Dow's dioxins raised in New Zealand Parliament

TARIANA TURIA (Co-Leader—Māori Party) to the Minister of Health: What advice has the Minister received about the nature of the significant errors identified by independent forensic accountant John Leonard in the Ministry of Health’s Paritutu dioxin serum study?

Hon PETE HODGSON (Minister of Health): I have received advice that the report of the forensic accountant contradicts the findings of the study conducted by Environmental Science and Research that was peer reviewed by scientists at the United States Centers for Disease Control, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Massey University New Zealand, and Hatfield Consultants in Canada. However, John Leonard has made serious claims and I have instructed the Ministry of Health to have his report independently reviewed. I can advise the House that this review will be carried out by Dr Allan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley.

Tariana Turia: Why did the Minister fail to investigate the serious anomalies with the Paritutu dioxin serum study 1 year ago when they were brought to his attention in a letter dated 7 October 2005?

Hon PETE HODGSON: I receive some thousands of letters a year and I am afraid I do not recall that one. But I will say that the Government has every interest in making sure that accurate information is made available to the people of Paritutu and indeed to the wider public.

Barbara Stewart: Has his ministry considered carrying out DNA tests, similar to those on Agent Orange victims, in order to conclusively identify the effects of exposure to the dioxin; if not, why not?

Hon PETE HODGSON: My understanding, and I am going from memory, is that Dr Neil Pearce from Massey University is conducting further investigations into various chemicals, including dioxin, and that attached to his study are some DNA disruption studies.

Maryan Street: How does the Minister respond to claims that anonymised data from individual patients was withheld from the international peer reviewers of the Environmental Research and Science report, and does he agree that these claims are very serious?

Hon PETE HODGSON: I do agree that they are serious claims, and I am pleased therefore to inform the House that they are wrong. The anonymised data in question was provided to the international peer reviewers. It has so far been withheld from public release, due to privacy concerns from some in the community and from the ethics committee that approved the study. Regardless, serious claims have been made about the Environmental Science and Research report and I have, as I said in my primary answer, instructed the Ministry of Health to analyse them and respond as soon as possible.

Sue Kedgley: Would he like to use this as an opportunity right now, in the House today, to offer an apology to affected New Zealanders for the physical and emotional suffering they have endured as a result of successive Governments subsidising 2,4,5-T, encouraging its widespread use, and, long after it had been banned in most other countries of the world, for allowing it to be manufactured right next to a residential area, and for downplaying, denying, and falsely reassuring residents about the health effects of dioxin; if not, why not?

Hon PETE HODGSON: The events over the past four or five decades have certainly been a chapter of interesting changes of viewpoint and, indeed, probably reflect not only changes in New Zealand society over that time but also changes in our view of what is an acceptable risk. Clearly, what happened then is not acceptable now.

Sue Kedgley: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. I explicitly asked the Minister whether he would apologise to the affected residents. The Minister did not answer my question.

Madam SPEAKER: I think he addressed the question, but if he wishes to make his answer explicit he may do so.

Hon PETE HODGSON: Let me say, uncomplicatedly, that I do not feel entitled to apologise for 4 ½ decades of activity by a series of industries—that is to say, the primary sector, a series of chemical companies such as Dow and its variously named subsidiaries—and a series of Governments. I am, myself, a person who got through university by spraying an awful lot of gorse. I have no idea what my dioxin level is, but I bet it ain’t that good!

Sue Kedgley: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. The Government felt able to make an apology to Vietnam veterans—

Madam SPEAKER: That is not a point of order, as the member knows.

Hon Harry Duynhoven: Can the Minister confirm that an independent review, as he has outlined, will be done, and that if that review of the existing data shows a need for further investigation, a longitudinal study tracking down the residents who were in the Paritutu area at the time of highest exposures is likely to follow?

Hon PETE HODGSON: It is such a study that is under contest; that study has already been carried out. What I am reviewing—as I am sure the member would want, given that he represents the residents in question—is whether John Leonard’s independent forensic accounting expertise was accurate. In either case, I will happily make that information public.

Tariana Turia: What has changed between October 2005, when the Minister denied in writing that there was any evidence of data manipulation to cover up dioxin exposure levels, and the New Zealand Press Association’s report of Tuesday, 24 October, in which the Minister is quoted as saying: “It's clear that there's room for doubt so we better have another look…”?

Hon PETE HODGSON: What has changed is that there was a very long television programme, which spent a very long time telling the public of New Zealand that a gentleman thinks there has been a mistake. The gentleman raises valid questions. The fact that he did not know that this stuff had already been peer reviewed several times is perhaps a reflection on the television company. Nonetheless, valid questions have been raised, and we will take another look at the issue.

Sue Kedgley: Will the Government now honour a promise made by Don Matheson, a public health official at the Ministry of Health, to residents at a public meeting in New Plymouth 4 years ago that if there was proof that Dow caused the problem, the Government would initiate legal proceedings against Dow; if the Government will not, does the Minister acknowledge that that will send a terrible message to multinational corporations that they can come to New Zealand, pollute our local environment, poison our local residents, and get away scot-free?

Hon PETE HODGSON: I am sorry that I am unable to confirm that that undertaking was made 4 years ago. As to whether the Government should take anyone to court, an immediate question is what we can charge them with. As I recall, in my legal advice to date, I do not know of any law that was broken at the time. If, on the other hand, the member has legal advice to the contrary, I would be pleased to receive it.

Tariana Turia: Will the Minister now undertake to review the—[Interruption]

Rt Hon Winston Peters: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Even you heard that outrageous comment from Nick Smith. In light of what he said, he should be asked to leave the House.

Madam SPEAKER: Yes, I agree. I notice that he has the next question, and he should stay—[Interruption]—no, that was a disorderly intervention and the member knows that. The member should stay until his question is answered.

Hon Bill English: I raise a point of order, Madam Speaker. Could you just explain to us the basis on which that intervention was any more disorderly than any number of interjections that have been made during question time today? It was not made during a question, it was not made during a point of order, it was not unparliamentary, but I suppose it could be said that it was personal, because it was aimed at one member of Parliament. But I would say that in the common sense of almost all members here today, that intervention was no different from any other today.

Madam SPEAKER: I take the member’s point, and it was raised yesterday, which is why I am making this ruling. A member was on her feet asking a question, and there was an interchange across the Chamber that was not directed to the question but that was interfering with the person asking the question. That is the basis for that ruling. I want members, please, to show courtesy and respect. Interjections are fine when on the question, but that one was not on the question. It was a gratuitous comment that was put across the Chamber. That is the basis of that ruling.

Tariana Turia: Will the Minister now undertake to review the Taranaki District Health Board’s August 2002 birth defects study, as was recommended, in light of the new evidence in John Leonard’s report?

Hon PETE HODGSON: If the evidence in John Leonard’s report stacks up when reviewed by Dr Allan Smith of the University of California at Berkeley, then I think that the Government does need to consider Dr Smith’s report when it is received.

Tariana Turia: I seek leave to table a letter of 7 October 2005 from Andrew Gibbs to the Hon Pete Hodgson, and a letter from the Hon Pete Hodgson to Andrew Gibbs in response to Mr Gibbs’ letter of 7 October 2005.

Leave granted.

Sue Kedgley: I seek leave to table a letter from Annette King to Andrew Gibbs, where the Minister says that all the monitoring and investigation carried out around the Ivon Watkins-Dow issue showed there was no significant exposure of dioxins into the local population, which is completely erroneous.

Leave granted.

Posted by bhola at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)

Dow Chemical Co. begins dioxin testing in Midland

CATHY HENG, THE SAGINAW TIMES, OCTOBER 27, 2006

MIDLAND - Soil testing to detect the presence of dioxins and furans began this week in Midland, and most property owners seem eager to know the results.

Of the 571 property owners who received letters from Dow Chemical Co. asking for sampling permission, 350 have said ''yes'' so far, said Noel D. Bush, Midland's utilities director.

The city is among them.

City Council members have agreed to let Dow sample soil at 14 city-owned parcels as part of the company's corrective action plan under its hazardous waste facility operating license, Bush said.

Dow is looking for chemicals historically released from its complex to see if nearby properties are contaminated.

Dow and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality developed the testing plan, Bush said.

It involves drawing 23 lines radiating from the complex. Surface soil samples will come from 145 spots spaced every 950 feet along the lines, eight or 10 per line.

''Dow's contractor will take enough soil to fill about a quart jar,'' Bush said.

Dow will restore the property after sampling. Each dig should take about one hour, Bush said.

Samples will come from front yards, if possible, for easy accessibility by the sampling team.

Bush said that if results show that contaminants pose harm, the parties will identify the property so Dow and the DEQ can decide how to proceed.

Bush said the study areas range as far north as Wheeler Road.

Posted by bhola at 01:30 PM | Comments (0)

October 27, 2006

Chernobyl haunts the Norwegian uplands

New Scientist, October 28, 2006

Tougher controls on the slaughter of sheep have been imposed in Norway after they were found to be contaminated with unusually high levels of radioactivity from the Chernobyl disaster in 1986.

The Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority (NRPA) says the problem has arisen because the sheep have feasted on an unusually large crop of mushrooms, which were more plentiful than usual because of wet weather. Previous research has shown that fungi take up more radioactivity from the soil than grasses or other plants.

Could mushrooms like these Norwegian ceps also be dangerous to humans?

There are 36 areas of upland Norway where Chernobyl contamination still requires controls on sheep. According to the NRPA, levels of caesium-137 from the Chernobyl disaster reached 7000 becquerels per kilogram in sheep this year, more than twice maximum levels in previous years.

Farmers can reduce the level of radioactivity in sheep by giving them non-contaminated food for a month before slaughter. For some farmers, this period will now have to be doubled to reduce caesium-137 levels to below Norway's safety limit of 600 bq/kg.

Per Strand, the NRPA's head of environmental radioactivity, stresses that the precautions mean that lamb on the market is safe to eat. He says, though, that the discovery of such high levels of radioactivity so long after the Chernobyl accident came as a surprise.

"No one at the time expected contamination to be so high more than 20 years after the event," he says.

From issue 2575 of New Scientist magazine, 28 October 2006, page 7

Posted by bhola at 03:26 PM | Comments (0)

New Zealand: Shocking baby photos needed to jolt awareness

LYN HUMPHREYS, TARANAKI DAILY NEWS, OCTOBER 26 2006

New Plymouth's Judy Eva lived near the Ivon Watkins-Dow plant in the 1960s. Her two daughters were born with deformities possibly linked to dioxin. PHOTO: NIC GIBSON/TARANAKI DAILY NEWS

A New Plymouth woman was shocked to see photos of her deformed newborn baby girl on a television documentary exposing the effects of dioxin this week.

But, while distressing, there is a need to show them to the New Zealand public in order to bring the issues to the fore, says Judy Eva.

"It's just as well they were taken. It is proof it did happen," she said.

Mrs Eva was one of hundreds of people who e-mailed, phoned and sent letters to TV3 after the Let Us Spray documentary on Monday night.

The programme focused on Paritutu residents' exposure to dioxin, a byproduct of the herbicide 2,4,5-T manufactured by Ivon Watkins-Dow (now Dow AgroSciences) between 1962 and 1987.

Greens MP Sue Kedgley has since called for the Government to apologise and compensate those affected.

A public meeting is to be held next Thursday at the Plymouth International at 7pm.

Its organiser, Chemically Exposed Paritutu Residents Association spokesman Andrew Gibbs, said it would be open to all political parties, "as we see it as a fundamental human rights issue, not a political football".

Mrs Eva told the Taranaki Daily News yesterday that she gave birth to two daughters in the 1960s. Both were born with spina bifida and did not survive.

"I was not aware there were so many others born with a similar problem.

"When you look back you wonder why, when there were so many babies born with deformities, that no one took any action."

She is childless, having decided not to have any more children.

While Mrs Eva did not live in Paritutu, she lived within 2km of the Ivon Watkins-Dow plant when the babies were conceived. She recalls smelling fumes from the plant from her home in Hine St during damp weather.

Ministry of Health investigations found dioxin in Paritutu and Moturoa soils.

Blood tests also found long term residents have, on average, four times the national average dioxin levels. The dioxin came from airborne emissions at the plant.

Westown Maternity matron Hyacinth Henderson was so concerned when she saw large numbers of deformed babies being born, she took their photos and recorded details between 1965 and 1970.

Mrs Henderson alerted health authorities, but no action was taken.

A recent review of the birth defects in New Plymouth, using Mrs Henderson's data, has since been carried out by the former medical officer for health, Patrick O'Connor. Mr Gibbs said 20 of the 28 were found by Dr O'Connor. Five were from rural areas. Six of the 15 in New Plymouth city were from Moturoa.

The average was three times that of National Women's Hospital, Mr Gibbs said.

Mrs Eva said she only became aware her daughters were in Mrs Henderson's study when their photos appeared in Investigate magazine's article on dioxin.

Mrs Eva's doctors at the time had suggested the defects could have been genetic, but neither she nor her husband had any history of spina bifida in their families.

The documentary includes television footage from 1986 and Dr J. Stoke, director of public health, saying he was happy to drink many litres of 2,4,5-T each day.

Posted by bhola at 11:48 AM | Comments (0)

October 25, 2006

Vietnam: Pesticides from burnt warehouse pose severe threat

THANH NIEN NEWS, OCTOBER 24, 2006

A pesticide warehouse that went up in flames three days ago in southern Vietnam is posing a deadly threat to local residents’ health and livelihood.

Many people have fainted while bathing in or consuming water from rivers flowing through several districts of An Giang province in the Mekong delta.

The trouble started when a warehouse situated beside a river in Thanh My Tay commune in Chau Phu district burned down last Saturday, releasing a large quantity of pesticides into the river.

Authorities estimate some 2.5 tons of insecticides seeped into the river whose waters irrigate canals, rice fields, and aquaculture ponds in the district.

A day later, the chemicals flowed downriver to at least four other districts – Chau Thanh, Thoai Son, Tri Ton, and Tinh Bien – leaving dead fish and shrimp floating along canals and fields.

The authorities have issued a ban on using water from rivers and canals but residents said it would mean dying of thirst since they were the only source of water.

A farmer said no fresh water had been provided to residents since the disaster.

The authorities have not estimated the damage caused to farmers.

Dead creatures continue to drift along the surfaces of rivers, canals, and flooded rice fields in the six districts and their surrounding areas.

Reportedly, 33 people have fainted since the time of the blaze.

Ngo Thi Phi, 44 living next to the warehouse, said when she knew about the fire she had rushed into her house to carry her mother out to safety. Immediately after coming out of the house, both had fallen to the ground in a faint. She said still had a headache.

Farmers said the deaths of shrimps, fishes, and other aquatic animals had already cost them hundreds of millions of dong (VND100 million = US$6,250).

Several years ago, a pesticide warehouse located on the Vinh Te canal in An Giang’s Chau Doc city had caught fire and caused severe damage in the area.

Reported by Thanh Tuan – Translated by Minh Phat

Posted by bhola at 02:46 PM | Comments (0)

Vietnam: Mercury poisoning suspected in mystery deaths

THANH NIEN NEWS, OCTOBER 17, 2006

Dr. Nguyen Khac Hai, director of the Health Ministry’s Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health

A mystery illness which killed four people in Vietnam’s northern mountains last month was possibly caused by mercury poisoning, a health expert said.

Nguyen Khac Hai, director of the Health Ministry’s Institute of Occupational and Environmental Health, said in 2002-2004 they had conducted research on the illness in Kim Boi district where many people had symptoms similar to ones seen in patients during in the recent outbreak.

Four out of 54 victims died in Lac Son district last month and all of them had numbness, pain and tingling in their limbs, difficulty in walking and breathing, and heart problems.

Hai said the researches during 2002-2004 had found high mercury content in patients’ hair and blood samples. Water, sediments, and animal samples in the area too had shown high mercury contents.

The research concluded the strange disease, first occurring 30 years ago, had been caused by chronic mercury poisoning.

But no conclusions could be drawn on the recent outbreak in Lac Son until test results were out.

But local health departments should inform people that the disease was not contagious and closely monitor pregnant women, Hai said.

Reported by Lien Chau – Translated by Tuong Nhi

Posted by bhola at 02:44 PM | Comments (0)

Rumsfeld and Saddam: partners in guilt

David Swanson, OpEd News, October 24, 2006

Rumsfeld and his ally Saddam

The White House has arranged to announce two days before the November 7, 2006, elections a guilty verdict for Saddam Hussein and, no doubt, plans to finally murder him. Meanwhile an appeals process is delaying until at least five days after the elections release of photos of members of the U.S. military and its contractors raping and murdering children and adults at Abu Ghraib.

While use of the death penalty is one of many American practices that much of the world views as barbaric, there can be little doubt that Saddam Hussein is guilty of major crimes stretching far beyond those he's been tried for, and including many in which the United States has been complicit.

A famous image shows Donald Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam Hussein. There's nothing wrong with shaking hands with a dictator. It's potentially far more productive than slaughtering 650,000 of his nation's people. Bush should be shaking hands and talking with the leaders of Iran and North Korea rather than threatening to destroy their countries. The trouble is that Rumsfeld wasn't meeting with Hussein in order to promote democracy. Rumsfeld was there on December 20, 1983, as a special envoy for President Ronald Reagan to assist in Iraq's efforts to kill Iranians, including through the use of chemical weapons – an illegal practice that Rumsfeld has more recently used himself against civilians in Iraq, most notably in Fallujah.

The Reagan administration knew that Iraq was using chemical weapons. Nonetheless, following Rummy's visits in December of 1983 and March of 1984, the United States established full diplomatic ties with Iraq on November 26, 1984. Reagan and Rummy and the rest of the truly Neo cons also supplied Iraq with helicopters and other "dual use" equipment and materials (including anthrax), provided intelligence and satellite data to assist Iraq's bombing raids on Iran, prevented passage of strong Senate legislation cutting off assistance to Iraq, and prevented any UN Security Council resolution that would have directly condemned Iraq by insisting that Iran was also using chemical weapons. When Iraq used chemical weapons to slaughter Kurds in Halabja in March of 1988, the Reagan administration falsely blamed Iran. The George Bush Sr. administration continued to supply Iraq with weapons, despite Iraq's then real chemical and biological weapons programs, until the day before Iraq invaded Kuwait, August 2, 1990.

For all the crimes that Saddam Hussein committed, with and without U.S. assistance or approval, it is noteworthy that there was no terrorism in the nation he controlled, not until we spent over $400 billion of our U.S. tax dollars to transform Iraq into the "central front in the War on Terror" and a training ground for a generation of terrorists.

In the course of making the world less safe for democracy, Donald Rumsfeld has overseen the slaughter of 650,000 Iraqis and 3,000 Americans. He has targeted civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances. He has used white phosphorous as a weapon on civilian families. He has used depleted uranium and a new form of napalm. (When did melting the skin off children become a family value?) He has approved the hiding of prisoners from the Red Cross, the detention of Americans and non-Americans without charge or counsel, and the use of torture. Acceptable torture techniques at Abu Ghraib were posted on the wall in a memo from Rumsfeld.

So, by all means, let's talk about Saddam Hussein's guilt and how much fun it will be to kill him. But let's remember who supported him for decades. And let's ask ourselves what the 650,000 Iraqis we've killed already were guilty of. Wasn't the plan to liberate them, not murder them? Here is guilt aplenty for Rumsfeld, Bush, and Cheney, and the corporate interests they serve.

Posted by bhola at 08:31 AM | Comments (0)

Dioxin testing in Midland begins; city participating

KATHIE MARCHLEWSKI, MIDLAND DAILY NEWS, OCTOBER 24, 2006

With permission from property owners, The Dow Chemical Co. Monday began testing Midland soils for dioxin levels. And Midland City Council on Monday gave the go-ahead to have city-owned parcels added to the list of to-be-tested properties.

As part of Dow's agreement with the state that it would find the nature and extent of contamination in Midland, the company requested that 14 city properties be included. The areas are on Orchard Drive, Grove Street, Carpenter Street, Lyon Road, Nelson Street, East Patrick Road, West St. Andrews Road, Iowa Street, Kent Court, Cronkright Street and State Street.

City Utilities Director Noel Bush said parcels and their owners -- 571 including the City of Midland have been contacted -- were randomly chosen. Dow and the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality mapped out the city and chose the areas that might be contaminated, based in part on wind direction from the plant. Testing generally will take place to the north and northeast of the Dow plant, out as far as Wheeler Road.

The city and participating residents have been assured that results of specific properties will be kept confidential unless levels exceed 1,000 parts per trillion of dioxin, the federal action level.

"I'm not believing that's going to happen," Bush said.

Midland's historical dioxin contamination is the result of airborne particles that settled into the top layer of soil. Unlike the higher levels found in the Tittabawassee River flood plain and Saginaw River -- there levels measure into the thousands and in some cases tens of thousands of parts per trillion -- levels in Midland are much lower, most hovering around the 90 ppt level the state considers acceptable for residential contact.

To achieve confidentiality, several properties are being grouped into blocks and samples are not being linked to those properties. Results will come from one block of several parcels, but not from any one specific parcel.

"You won't be able to get each property's results, only the station's results," Bush said.

Soil will be collected by hand from several locations on each parcel with little disruption to the yard and within about an hour.

The goal is to collect soil that will be used in a bioavailability study. Dow plans to conduct the study in order to determine, based on the variety of soil types, how much dioxin is absorbed into the body when soil is ingested. Dow also plans to analyze samples for other potential contaminants. The plan is a multiphase one and a requirement of Dow's state-issued operating license.

In the past, the City of Midland expressed concern on behalf of its residents that soil sampling could have a negative impact on property values and sales. To protect targeted properties from negative stigma, the City had argued that testing should not be done until the state and Dow agreed on a level at which cleanup or other remedial action would be taken.

To come up with that level, however, Dow officials say it is important to conduct the bioavailability study. The state cleanup level for dioxin in residential areas is 90 parts per trillion. Some areas of Midland are not much higher, averaging 150 to 200 parts per trillion. If the bioavailability study shows that dioxin is not absorbed into the body at as high a rate the state assumes in setting the 90 ppt standard, that standard could be edged up, removing portions of Midland from the list of potential areas of concern.

Posted by bhola at 08:24 AM | Comments (0)

October 24, 2006

Could dioxin contamination in New Plymouth be bigger than acknowledged?

Radio New Zealand, October 24, 2006

The Ministry of Health is to look into claims that significant mistakes were made in a study of dioxin contamination in New Plymouth.

From 1962 to 1987 the Ivon Watkins Dow factory made the herbicide 245T, which contained a dioxin.

Last year a Ministry of Health report said people who had lived near the plant, had higher than average levels of the dioxin in their blood.

But a forensic accountant hired by TV3 to review the report says mixed-up data obscures a peak of dioxin contamination before 1974, which was never corrected in the report.

Posted by bhola at 09:53 AM | Comments (0)

October 22, 2006

Government botched ethyl mercury safety study

LIDIA WASOWICZ, UPI, OCTOBER 20, 2006

SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 20 (UPI) -- Researchers analyzing new study results have concluded the government at least partly botched its job when it was assessing the danger posed by the mercury-based preservative thimerosal that once was widely used in children's vaccines.

The story begins in the fall of 1971 with a mission of mercy to famine-ravaged Iraq. In October of that year, the country received 90,000 metric tons of wheat seed, which, intended for planting as crops, had been treated with methylmercury, a fungicide similar to yet, as new research suggests, significantly different from the ethylmercury found in thimerosal.

Rather than being put in the ground in the rural communities that acquired it, much of the seed instead was ground and baked as bread. Of the estimated 50,000 consumers of the treated wheat, more than 6,000 were hospitalized for mercury poisoning, 450 died and many pregnant women gave birth to children with mental retardation, seizures, impaired vision or hearing and other birth defects.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency studied the amounts of mercury in samples of the mothers' blood and hair and the occurrence of disability in their babies along with other toxicological information to calculate a "safe" level of exposure to the toxin.

For added protection, the agency then further divided that number by a factor of 10 to come up with limits considered safe for children receiving vaccines preserved with thimerosal.

The use of these data to formulate guidelines for the U.S. childhood immunization program was predicated on two critical assumptions: that the effects of methylmercury and ethylmercury on the human body are the same and that these do not differ between fetuses still in the womb and babies already born. Neither, it turns out, is true, scientists say.

Numerous studies have shown a greater susceptibility to poisons of the developing central nervous system of the fetus than that of the newborn, researchers say.

Putting aside the differences between the two types of mercury, that would mean the EPA erred on the side of caution, at least when it comes to shots given children, not the ones administered to pregnant women -- who to this day are given thimerosal-containing flu vaccines.

As far as the two types of mercury go, other research paints a picture of beasts of a different color, and it's not yet clear which one has a darker disposition toward causing neurological harm in babies, doctors say.

Because of all the uncertainty, the net effect on a youngster of the small amounts of toxin once commonly found in immunizations remains highly disputed.

No one denies that mercury in large doses can wreak developmental havoc and that exposure to the neurotoxin can affect maturing brains, whether in the womb or cradle. But there's emphatic disagreement among scientists on just how much is too much and exactly what damage the child suffers as a result.

The non-profit Environmental Working Group recently challenged a long-held view of the womb as a shield against toxins. The analysis of 10 samples of umbilical cord blood from infants born in U.S. hospitals in August and September 2004 detected 287 of the 413 chemicals for which the researchers tested.

Of these, 180 have been associated with cancer in humans or animals, 217 with irregularities in the brain and nervous system and 208 with birth defects or abnormal development in animals, the environmentalists said.

The EPA itself estimates each year even before they're born, more than 300,000 infants may be exposed to enough mercury to increase their risk of learning disabilities.

That grim conclusion is based on a 1999-2000 analysis that showed some 8 percent of women in the childbearing years of 16 to 49 had higher than recommended concentrations of the neurotoxin in their blood. Other studies showed the rate dropping to 3.9 percent in 2001-2002.

In early 2006, however, interim results released from an ongoing survey detected mercury levels exceeding EPA safety guidelines in as many as one in five women in that age group.

The results raise concern "because mercury exposure in the womb can cause neurological damage and other health problems in children," said an accompanying statement by the environmental groups Sierra Club and Greenpeace.

The organizations tested hair samples from more than 6,600 Americans of all ages from all 50 states in what they called the largest such project ever conducted. In nearly all of the cases, the mercury source was a fish-rich diet.

Mercury accumulates in the bodies of animals, and passes up the food chain, anything that eats fish-eating fish gets a concentrated dose

The health consequences of such eating habits are under intense debate.

Studies from the Faroe Islands, an archipelago of 18 isles in the North Sea between Iceland and Norway, have reported a possible connection between subtle cognitive deficits, such as performance on attention, language and memory tests, and methylmercury levels previously thought to be safe.

But critics double fault the research, which involved a pilot-whale-eating populace. For one, the multitude of pollutants contaminating the meat muddies the waters, both literally and figuratively, making it difficult to discern the effects attributable to mercury, they say. For another, whatever the consequences, they likely would not apply to American children, few of whom munch on Moby Dick sandwiches, they point out.

Less disputed, though still controversial, are the results of a long-running survey, now in its 16th year, of 779 youngsters born in 1989 or 1990 in the Seychelles Islands, a tiny Indian Ocean nation off the coast of Africa, whose waters are purer and menu selections more akin to those gracing U.S. dinner tables.

Other than methylmercury, there are no known contaminants in the tuna, swordfish and other ocean-dwelling delicacies favored by the locals, say the investigators from the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York.

Thus far, they say they have observed no evidence of harm in any of the children, who are now reaching their 16th birthday, from their mothers wolfing down an average of 12 fish meals a week during pregnancy -- about 10 times the amount of seafood most Americans find palatable.

The horrifying fallout of consuming mercury-polluted fare on the fetus caught the world off guard in the 1950s during a poisoning outbreak in Minamata and Niigata, Japan.

Some pregnant women who feasted on noxious seafood gave birth to babies with severe developmental disabilities, although they themselves suffered no ill effects, raising questions of extra fetal sensitivity to the neurotoxin.

The levels of food contamination with mercury from industrial pollution -- 50 parts per million -- have not been duplicated since. Some 20 years later, Iraq's tragedy spawned of tainted bread led to studies that suggested there might be adverse effects from exposures as low as 10 to 20 ppm.

The Rochester researches report fish typically consumed today around the world usually contains less than 1 ppm, and rarely more than 4 or 5 ppm.

Funded by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the scientists will continue their study at least until 2010 to see the Seychelles children through their teens, a time when, recent animal studies indicate, the mercury effects on learning, memory and behavior might start showing up.

More dust of controversy was kicked up by another provocative study, this one coming out of Texas. The survey of the state's nearly 1,200 school districts noted those with the highest levels of mercury spewed by fossil-fuel-burning power plants also have the greatest rates of special-education students and autism diagnoses. Suggestive as it may be, no proof of a connection has been established.

The disputed significance of these findings aside, it's important to note they apply to the type of mercury not found in vaccines.

Because the research cupboard for ethylmercury's effects is virtually bare, government and public health officials have been basing their safety standards on the more studied and better understood fallout of methylmercury.

While such a crossover may seem justified, it is not scientifically validated, scientists say. In fact, they say, evidence is mounting for striking differences in the way the two compounds are distributed, metabolized and excreted.

"Methylmercury is not same as (the mercury) in thimerosal; it's surprising how different they are," said Thomas Burbacher, associate professor of environmental health, researcher at the Center on Human Development and Disability, director of the Infant Primate Research Laboratory at the University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine in Seattle and lead investigator on the first study to directly compare the blood and brain levels of the two chemicals in infant primates.

"It's been used (in EPA guidelines) because there are no data on ethylmercury, but there are on methylmercury, which has been studied since 1950," he added. "So you use the information that's available -- assuming it's relevant."

From their experiments with 41 newborn crab-eating monkeys, the investigators concluded that it's not.

"The current study indicates that (methylmercury) is not a suitable reference for risk assessment from exposure to thimerosal," they wrote.

(Note: In this multi-part installment, based on dozens of reports, conferences and interviews, Ped Med is keeping on eye on autism, taking a backward glance at its history and surrounding controversies, facing facts revealed by research and looking forward to treatment enhancements and expansions.)

Posted by bhola at 01:05 PM | Comments (0)

New delay for VX waste plan

JEFF MONTGOMERY, THE NEWS JOURNAL, OCTOBER19, 2006

Effects of VX gas exposure in Halabja

An amendment in a defense spending bill has sidetracked Army plans to send chemical weapon disposal waste to a Delaware River treatment plant, three south Jersey lawmakers said today.

Reps. Rob Andrews, Rob. Andrews, Frank LoBiondo and Jim Saxton said the provision assures a Government Accountability Office review of the proposal to treat caustic leftovers from a VX nerve agent neutralization process in Indiana.

VX is one of the military’s deadliest chemical weapons, with a tiny droplet capable of killing on contact with human skin. The Army wants to send 2 to 4 million gallons of neutralized VX to a commercial industrial wastewater plant operated by the DuPont Co. at its Chambers Works plant for final disposal. The plant is located near the New Jersey side of the Delaware Memorial Bridge.

The weapons that carried VX nerve gas

Andrews said the amendment, in a bill signed by President Bush this week, bars any shipments of VX wastewater for at least 60 days after the report is completed. Although the Centers for Disease Control and Environmental Protection Agency found recently that the project could be managed safely, critics have argued that the proposal ignores threats to people and pollution risks in the river.

“I believe strongly that there are too many risks and too many unanswered questions bout this plan and it should never happen,” Andrews said.

For more coverage see The News Journal on Friday or www.delawareonline.com.

Contact Jeff Montgomery at 678-4277 or jmontgomery@delawareonline.com

Posted by bhola at 12:17 PM | Comments (0)

Activists demand cleanup of Dickson pollution: Dumping in poor, mostly black area 'environmental injustice,' group says

KATE HOWARD, DICKSON HERALD, OCTOBER 19, 2006

Environmental activists called on city and state officials Wednesday to clean up the "obvious case of environmental injustice" they believe led to pollution in the rural, mostly black neighborhood near the closed Dickson County landfill.

At an informational meeting in north Nashville, members of the Tennessee Coalition for Environmental Justice and a handful of residents gathered to talk about their next steps: figuring out a plan to begin cleaning up the chemicals in the groundwater and getting someone to dig up newer waste before it contributes to the contamination.

"This pollution is permanent, and there is so much saturation that this is not going to just go away," said Bruce Wood of the environmental justice group. "We want the waste dug up, and we want to know who manufactured these chemicals … and why they're not being held responsible."

Wood said the landfill was built in the middle of a poor, disenfranchised and mostly black neighborhood in the 1960s. When dumping ceased in 1999, the Eno Road transfer station was built on the same site, further emphasizing the residents' perception of being subjected to injustice.

"The landfill was operated in such a poor manner, and the people couldn't defend themselves," Wood said. "Now we want the diesel trucks in and out of there stopped. We need no more destruction of this area."

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, was discovered in 1997 in a well that fed the municipal water supply. A county consultant located 14 sites in springs and wells near the landfill that may be contaminated with the metal degreaser that can cause nerve, liver or lung damage.

Dickson county and city officials have declined to comment, citing several pending lawsuits. The landfill and a defunct automotive plant to the east are the focal points of lawsuits by families who say chemical pollution in their wells made them ill.

The state has spent more than $400,000 since 2003 to investigate and clean up TCE and $455,456 more for a grant for the county to extend its water lines. It also required the county to make public water lines available to the area, a move completed in March.

The Dickson County dump was opened in the 1960s and turned into a landfill a decade later. It accepted domestic and industrial waste, and state officials have said the problems stem from the days before dumping was tightly regulated.

The TCE is dispersed throughout the limestone, but levels of contamination drop farther away from the landfill, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation officials have said.

Residents like Mary Wright, a retired nurse who lives across the street from the landfill, have been asking for a health survey to determine whether the chemicals have harmed their health.

"We're very serious that we do need help," Wright said. "We know many of the chemicals dumped in there cause illness and cancer. We don't know what all has happened, but we could find out." •

Posted by bhola at 12:14 PM | Comments (0)

Firm accepts 'moral responsibility' for mess.
(Sounds familiar, means nothing: Union Carbide took "moral" responsibility for Bhopal.)

Amsterdam, The Netherlands - The company that unloaded chemical waste blamed for the deaths of 10 people in Ivory Coast has said it accepts moral, but not legal, responsibility for the incident, Dutch media reported on Wednesday.

IOL, SOUTH AFRICA, OCTOBER 19, 2006

The Dutch state broadcaster NOS cited Eric de Turckheim, co-founder of the commodities broker Trafigura Beheer BV, as speaking at a press conference in London.

Officials for Trafigura in London and at its headquarters in Amstelveen, Netherlands, could not be reached late on Wednesday to confirm the NOS report.

Trafigura says it contracted properly with an Ivory Coast company called Tommy to dispose of the waste that was found dumped in residential neighbourhoods of Abidjan in the weeks after August 19.

Posted by bhola at 11:40 AM | Comments (0)

The politics of pollution

Mike Ketcher and sons Grant and Jake, along with Capt. Rich Russell and the nice cobia they caught aboard the Enterpriserecently.

I'm not an environmentalist, tree-hugger or political activist. I'm a fisherman. My frustration with the politics of pollution and my desire to see it stop began not altruistically, but because fishing was getting screwed up. And therefore, my living was in danger.

My interest for the common good came when we all ferreted-out the causes of dead zones, dead reefs, dead seagrass, dead fish, sick fish and no fish.

It became apparent that agricultural run-off carrying pesticides, nutrients, algae and other bad stuff, killing natural seagrasses and corals and leaving in their place gloppy masses of life-snuffing algae was being deliberately introduced into the Gulf and Atlantic by a good-buddy culture of polluters and politicians and facilitated by the highly-political U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, among other quasi-political bodies.

The politics of pollution appears to be funded by political corruption and will never go away unless we get mad enough to say enough is enough. Readers of this column are well aware of what I speak.

So while the politicians prattle on year after year about what they are going to do, they just flat don't. Before the Lake O discharges, turtlegrass - which larvae of grouper, snapper, yellow tail, snook, trout and more need to mature into adulthood - covered about 95 percent of refuge waters. Now it covers about 10 percent. The rest is a slimy goo.

Before long, there won't be anything left for us to enjoy, except for those responsible for all this, who will be enjoying their new swimming pools and Lexuses. Get mad.

Capt. Rich Russell of Enterprise took out Mike and Lisa Ketcher and sons Grant and Jake of Overland Park, Kansas on a light tackle fishing trip the other day. They fished the near shore piles and wrecks and caught a nice cobia (see photo) and brought a 250-pound goliath grouper to boat. Nice catch on light tackle. The cobia was taken on the second reef and took a half hour to bring to gaf.

Capt. Trent Petry of Sunshine Tours has been fishing the outside bays and passes and scoring nice catches of Spanish mackerel. In the back waters, he's been catching whiting, black drum and red fish. Some trout are also in the mix.

Capt. Sean Black of Say What has been fishing permit this week, and limiting out each day. The permit are moving to wrecks a tad further out southwest of Marco Island.

As a post script, the governor of Georgia is suing the Army Corps of Engineers for messing with his lakes and reservoirs, drawing down their water. How about that, Gov. Bush?

Nah, too much to wish for!

See ya!

Retired fishing Capt. Fred Lifton has been fishing Marco Island waters for more than 32 years. He welcomes your fishing questions, comments and suggestions at 394-7445, or by fax at 394-8353.,/i>

Posted by bhola at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)

Chemical waste dumping leads to fish deformities

CAPTAIN FRED LIFTON, MARCO ISLAND SUN TIMES, OCTOBER 19, 2006

His name is Gerald Nicks and he lives in Goodland. He's a Sarasota native and has been a commercial fisherman on Florida's Gulf Coast all of his life and he thinks he has the answer to something that's been bothering me for about 15 years. His experience spans 62 years, so I figured I'd listen to what he had to say.

In the mid-1980s, we discovered, by checking out a spot a Loggerghead turtle was over, a chunk of structure on the bottom, about 12 miles out west of Marco in about 42 feet of water. It wasn't large, but boy did it produce fish. Especially big mangrove snapper and gag grouper. It was sure fire fishing in the fall and winter months, so we fished it sparingly and didn't share our find with anyone. This went on for years until the winter of 1992 or 1993 when the mangrove snapper we were catching had large indented lesions on them and were very empty-feeling, not at all firm and fat. This went on for weeks and we told our clients not to keep or eat them as we didn't know what was wrong. No agency we contacted seemed interested or was any help and soon afterward that structure was gone. Vanished. So the problem was gone as well and I haven't seen anything like it since.

Now Gerald Nicks thinks he knows what that was. He says it's similar to what happened to him and his brother in 1947 off the coast of Clearwater in 60 feet of water while hand-lining for grouper. They snagged a drum with their grapple hook and when they got it to the surface, a very smelly greenish liquid came pouring out of the ruptured drum that Gerald says smelled like the chemical gas he smelled while he was in the army in WWII. The side of the drum was marked U.S. government. He went to the local nabobs to report what he saw but, typically, no one cared or did squat. He went to McDill Air Force Base in Tampa and talked to a guy named Johnson who knew about chemical dumping but said he didn't think, but wasn't sure, that the government dumped any chemical waste that close to shore. After that drum that Gerald ruptured fell back into the Gulf, in the weeks that followed he observed dead fish around the area for a while until the current carried the destroyed drum away.

Gerald supplied me with documented proof of mass dumping of chemical weapons waste by the U.S. government off our shores. The Intrafish Daily Press states that the army admits it secretly dumped 64 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents into the sea along with 400,000 chemical bombs and 500 tons of radioactive waste. This stuff was dumped off the coast of at least 11 states, six on the east coast, two on the Gulf coast, and off California, Hawaii and Alaska. What brought this all to a head was an incident that happened off the New Jersey coast in 2004. A clam dredging operation brought up an old World War I artillery shell that was filled with a black, tar-like substance when the bomb disposal unit from Dover Air Force Base was dispatched to neutralize it. Three bomb disposal techs were hospitalized with large pus-filled blisters on their hands and arms from handling it. The stuff was mustard gas in solid form. There is much, much more to this story than we have space for here, but log on to: www.intrafish.no (subject: U.S. Chemical Weapons Foul Seas) for more on this topic published March 11, 2005.

See ya!

Retired fishing Capt. Fred Lifton has been fishing Marco Island waters for more than 32 years. He welcomes your fishing questions, comments and suggestions at 394-7445, or by fax at 394-8353.

STRANGE RED TIDES

Tarpon. Tarpon. And more tarpon?

By the droves in October? Yes, yes, yes. The guys are having a field day out front and down south. Couple that with great snapper and cobia fishing, and you can see that life is good in Southwest Florida.

Capt. Sean Black of Say What started the week with a bang up day when he took Robert Cutter from New Jersey out on a day of snapper fishing on some wrecks 25 miles southwest of Marco. They just limited out on mangrove snapper when a big herd of cobia came up and milled around the boat. They baited up some heavier rigs, stuck on some live sand perch and Katey bar the doors. They boated six fish between 20 and 40 pounds, keeping one for dinner and releasing the other five.

Later in the week, when the tarpon showed up, Capt. Sean guided Andy Singer and party from Massachussetts for some tarpon fishing off Keewaydin Island. The folks had never fished tarpon before, so it's understandable that even though they jumped seven fish, only one was brought to boat. That tarpon went 140-plus pounds and was landed by Walter, a business associate of Andy's. They had the other six fish on for several nice jumps each, so a great day of fishing was had by all. Walter wanted to take a photo of that big poon that he worked for over two hours to land on light line, but nobody on board had a camera. Aww shucks!

Capt. Jody Weis of Weis Guy took out separate parties on two half-day trips and thrilled both families with super tarpon action down the south end of the island. One gal in one of the parties said that was more fun than -Oops! - this is a family newspaper. Boy, I love fishing, but...

Capt. Rich Russell of Enterprise captured and released about a 250-pound goliath grouper, then moved on to beat up the Spanish mackerel, which are still around in big numbers. All the guys on the dock are having field days fishing, targeting mainly Spanish mackerel but now will step up their tarpon fishing while it lasts.

The Fish Forum meeting held by the Gulf Council on Oct. 4 at Rookery Bay drew over 40 of you nice folk, and all those that spoke about goliath grouper problems spoke intelligently and to the point. Maybe naively, I believe you'll be listened to. Finally.

After years of futility trying to get a limited take enacted of goliaths, we were told it will be placed on the agenda of the regular Nov. 13 meeting of the full Gulf Council in Galveston, Texas. We'll be there.

The recent red tide outbreaks are strange. One day here, the next day gone. Sometimes in the passes and back bays, sometimes out front, and sometimes far offshore. It breaks up and comes back. Weird. No steady pattern at all. Anyway, fishing remains good.

See ya!

Hey, who ordered the human sushi?

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to fish with Capt. Ben Fairley onboard his super 65-foot sportfish boat named Necessity out of Orange Beach, Ala.

Local guys Doug Keuther, Josh "Squid" Potter, Jay McMillen and Steve Companion and myself set off Friday at 6 a.m. for the 11-hour drive to Orange Beach. Our plans were to hook up with seven of our friends from Alabama and Virginia for a full day of fishing on Sunday.

It was one heck of a long drive, but worth it both for the fishing and the company of great guys enjoying a real fun time.

We left the dock at 6 a.m. and bait-fished at the mouth of the pass for threads and alewives and loaded up that hot tub-sized livewell in a hurry.

Then, we fished some man-made "pyramids" in 200 feet of water 40 miles out and - in some spurts of nonstop action - filled a box with all American red snapper, vermilion snapper, white snapper, black and red grouper, scampi grouper, yellowfin and blackfin tuna and a couple of big kings.

Then, we went out another 20 miles to fish some rocky bottom and got some more red snapper and a few trigger fish.

The Necessity is an "overload charter vessel" and accommodates a dozen anglers. She had plenty of cockpit room for all 12 anglers and a huge livewell as well as a big fish box and a gas-fired cooker. We were telling one of the guys that the livewell was a hot tub and to get in, but he balked at this. So "Squid" jumped in (see photo) to show him. Image the surprise of a couple of hundred baitfish in there! Human sushi! "Squid" got out of there in one piece.

Josh �Squid� Potter relaxes in a hot tub. Actually, it�s a huge livewell full of bait fish found aboard Necessity in Orange Beach, Ala.

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to fish with Capt. Ben Fairley onboard his super 65-foot sportfish boat named Necessity out of Orange Beach, Ala.

Local guys Doug Keuther, Josh "Squid" Potter, Jay McMillen and Steve Companion and myself set off Friday at 6 a.m. for the 11-hour drive to Orange Beach. Our plans were to hook up with seven of our friends from Alabama and

I was up on the bridge in Capt. Ben's crib and we were talking about the state of fishing on the Gulf. Those boys up there have more fishing problems than we do. Bureaucracy rules. Capt. Ben put us on the fish that day, but the radio chatter showed that we were doing a heck of a lot better than the rest of those boys at the time. One of them radioed Ben and asked if he was doing okay at "X" area and Ben graciously said "Yeah."

Well, a good time was had by all and we each came back with our share of filets and tuna steaks.

The fishing here is into a typical summer pattern, minus much red grouper. Spanish mackerel is still very abundant close in and are providing great action for those folks that are chasing them. All species of sharks - some of them monsters - are active down south and are a surefire way to get some big game action if you're into catch and release.

Capt. Jody Weis was cranking in a small cobia when he spotted a huge 14-foot hammerhead shark closing in on it right close to the boat. He didn't bait it because he wasn't ready with the right heavy tackle, since he was cobia fishing. He did, however, get to limit out on legal cobia.

The snook fishing is just great and if they were in season, would be table fair for the snook fisherman. The possession rule is one fish per person between 26 and 34 inches. But at this time, they must all be released.

The trout is still out there but beginning to thin out. There are some gator trout to be had in the deeper holes.

We're all set with our sign-up sheets, hoping to have a large voice in trying to shame the South Florida Water Management District and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop drawing down Lake Okeechobee and sending that noxious soup into the Gulf of Mexico, killing the grasses that nourish all sea life and killing the near shore fishery itself. We urge you to stop at the Marco River Arena Tackleshop and add your name and voice to this critical effort. Thanks.

See ya!

Retired fishing Capt. Fred Lifton has been fishing Marco Island waters for more than 32 years. He welcomes your fishing questions, comments and suggestions at 394-7445, or by fax at 394-8353.

Posted by bhola at 11:10 AM | Comments (0)

Apex officials return to plant to combat chemical reaction

CHANTELLE JANELLE, WIS TV, OCTOBER 18, 2006

(Raleigh, NC-AP) October 18, 2006 - Officials say a small chemical reaction at the site of EQ Industrial Services in Apex has been contained.

It's been nearly two weeks since a raging inferno at the same warehouse run by EQ forced thousands of people from their homes.

Wednesday's incident sent a toxic plume into the air and emergency crews evacuated businesses near the plant. No injuries were reported.

Officials from the North Carolina Division of Waste Management say the reaction happened in a 55-gallon drum that contained sodium, which is a highly reactive metal that can combust when mixed with water.

Officials think the recent rain mixed with the residual waste caused the reaction. They also say there's no sign of toxic materials in the air after the reaction.

Cleanup started Tuesday from the October 5th blaze that prompted town officials to ask thousands to evacuate.

Posted by bhola at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)

10 million people at risk from pollution

TRACEE HERBAUGH, ASSOCIATED PRESS, OCTOBER 18, 2006

Residents fish in a polluted lake in Guiyang in southwest China's Guizhou province Sunday, Oct. 15, 2006. Chronic pollution and chemical accidents have tainted most of China's canals, rivers and lakes, and the country is suffering from a critical water shortage. (AP Photo)

NEW YORK — More than 10 million people are at risk for lung infection, cancer and shortened life expectancy because they live in the 10 worst-polluted cities in the world, according to a report issued Wednesday.

The report published by the Blacksmith Institute, an international environmental research group, lists 10 cities in eight countries where pollution poses health risks and fosters poverty.

"Living in a town with serious pollution is like living under a death sentence," the report said. "If the damage does not come from immediate poisoning, then cancers, lung infections, mental retardation, are likely outcomes."

The worst-polluted places in the world, the report said, are in secluded areas far away from capitals or tourist areas.

These countries, which are mostly part of the developing world, generally have few or inadequate pollution controls, and the problem is compounded by the local governments' "lack of knowledge" and the inability of citizens to enforce justice.

Three Russian cities are among the most polluted _ Dzherzhinsk, Norilsk and Rudnaya Pristan. The other cities are Linfen, China; Haina, Dominican Republic; Ranipet, India; Mayluu-Suu, Kyrgyzstan; La Oroya, Peru; Chernobyl, Ukraine; and Kabwe, Zambia.

According to the report the cities are reminders of an early industrial era, with most pollution stemming from relics such as unregulated lead and coal mines or unrefined nuclear weapons manufacturing plants.

In Chernobyl, the report estimates 5.5 million people are still threatened by radioactive material that continues to seep into groundwater and soil 20 years after the nuclear power plant exploded there.

Residents of Linfen, which is in the heart of China's coal-producing Shanxi province, suffer from bronchitis, pneumonia and lung cancer because of the poor air quality.

And according to the report, the 300,000 people in Dzherzhinsk, a chemical weapons manufacturing site during the Cold War era, have a life expectancy about "half that of the richest nations." The life expectancy for men in the city is about 42 years and about 47 for women.

Richard Fuller, director and founder of the Blacksmith Institute said the report was intended to shed light on the problem as well as the solutions.

"The good news is we have known technologies and proven strategies for eliminating a lot of this pollution," he said.

The report was compiled over seven years by a team of environmental and health experts, including faculty from Johns Hopkins University, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the City University of New York.

The top 10 list was compiled from more than 300 areas nominated by non-governmental agencies, local communities and international environmental authorities. The list of criteria included the size of the affected population, severity of the toxins involved and reliable evidence of health impacts.

Dave Hanrahan, Blacksmith Institute's chief of global operations, said some solutions to these problems could be as simple as reducing dust levels and removing contaminated soil.

"The most important thing is to achieve some practical progress in dealing with these polluted places," he said. "There is a lot of good work being done in understanding the problems and identifying possible approaches."

__

On the Net:

http://www.mostpolluted.org

Posted by bhola at 10:13 AM | Comments (0)

From rich to poor: Ivory Coast tragedy highlights hazardous waste trade on rise

The Associated Press, October 17, 2006

ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast Not long after hundreds of tons of toxic waste was jettisoned around Ivory Coast's main city under cover of darkness, Jean-Jacques Kakou awoke like thousands of others here to an overpowering stench that burned his eyes and made it hard to breathe.

Three weeks later, he was dead — one of at least 10 deaths authorities suspect were linked to a tragedy that has thrown light on a growing global trade in hazardous waste. Poison is still being shipped out of developed nations and dumped in the Third World despite international legislation.

"This is a wake-up call," Greenpeace's Helen Perivier said of the one of the worst waste scandals of the last decade — one that saw toxic black sludge dumped at 17 sites in Abidjan on Aug. 19. Two months later, the cleanup was still under way.

Outrage over similarly infamous incidents in the 1980s, including the dumping by Italian businessmen of 8,000 drums of chemical waste on a Nigerian beach in 1987, prompted the creation of international legislation.

The so-called Basel Convention was amended in 1995 to include a total ban on toxic waste shipments from industrialized nations, and experts say it has helped stem the flow of many kinds of chemical or industrial wastes to Africa and Asia.

But other detritus from the developed world known as electronic waste — discarded computers and televisions sets — is growing and may be an even greater concern, environmental experts say. According to the U.N., about 20 million to 50 million tons of "e-waste" is generated worldwide annually. Such waste contains toxins like lead and mercury or other chemicals that can poison waterways if buried or pour noxious toxins into the air if burned.

"Hazardous electronic waste is flowing to Africa on container ships every day. It's not as dramatic as was what happened in Ivory Coast, but over the long run it will have more of an environmental impact," Jim Puckett, founder of the Seattle-based environmental watchdog, Basel Action Network, told The Associated Press by telephone from London.

"More of it is being produced and it is still flowing down the path of least resistance — from the rich countries to the poor," he said.

Some African states, including Ivory Coast, have failed to ratify the main amendment to the Basel Convention. Key nations like the United States — which produces the most hazardous waste per capita of any country in the world — have rejected it altogether.

Ivory Coast's own tragedy began when a Korean-built, Greek-managed, Panamanian-flagged tanker chartered by the multibillion dollar (euro) Dutch commodities trading company Trafigura Beheer BV docked in Amsterdam to discharge its load July 2, according to Greenpeace. The ship, the Probo Koala, had been acting as a storage vessel for unrefined gasoline and Trafigura said it was trying to get rid of "washings" left behind after a routine cleaning with caustic soda.

Amsterdam port officials agreed to dispose of the waste for US$15,000 (€12,000), but after realizing it was a bigger load and tougher to cope with than expected, upped the price. Trafigura refused to pay, and left.

The ship traveled on to Estonia, and then Africa — where it found a local company in Ivory Coast called Tommy that agreed to dispose of the waste for roughly the original price.

But Tommy lacked facilities to get rid of the waste. No company in Ivory Coast has such facilities, said Safiatou Ba N'daw, who heads a special Ivorian government committee set up to deal with the crisis.

Ivorian officials and witnesses say more than a dozen trucks contracted by Tommy simply poured 528 tons of the waste at 17 public sites around Abidjan after midnight Aug. 19. The lagoon-side city's main garbage dump. A roadside field beside a prison. A sewage canal.

People woke to an intense stench — a mixture of rotten eggs and burnt garlic and onions. By morning, eyes were stinging, noses bleeding, stomachs, chests and ears were aching.

Tests later showed the sludge contained mercaptans and hydrogen sulfide, a potent poison that, particularly in confined spaces, can cause blackouts, respiratory failure and death.

Kakou, the 27-year-old construction worker who died three weeks later, fell ill immediately, according to his uncle David Ncho.

Kakou suffered asthma but otherwise had been in good health. On the last day of his life, he planned to go to one of the emergency clinics set up to deal with the crisis, and got up early to avoid the horrendously long lines. His family found him dead in the shower.

"Why did they dump this here? Why did they do it?" Ncho asked. "They must have known it was deadly. Why bring it to Africa?"

Authorities in the Netherlands, Estonia and Ivory Coast have launched investigations. Trafigura officials maintain they broke no laws.

Ivory Coast authorities have jailed seven people, including four Ivorian officials, the Nigerian head of Tommy and two French executives of Trafigura. All have been charged with breaking local toxic waste disposal laws, said Ali Yeo, a senior Justice Ministry official.

Many Ivorian residents have leveled anger at their government for allowing in the shipment. Mobs of angry youth burned the house of a port official and dragged the deposed transport minister from his car and beat him.

More than 100,000 Abidjan residents sought treatment, 69 were hospitalized and 10 died, though the exact reasons are still under investigation, said Health Ministry spokesman Simeon N'Da.

Two months later, cleanup workers from Tredi International, a French company, wear respiratory masks and white protective clothing while working alongside bulldozers that scoop up sludge and the trash it mixed with, pour it in large steel containers that are sealed and sprayed with a chemical cleaning solution. Tredi spokesman Henri Pettigand said he hoped the cleanup operation would finish this week. The waste will eventually be shipped back to Europe, but no specific destination has been agreed.

Near the cleanup effort, young scavengers search for aluminum, rubber and dolls heads, ignoring skull-and-crossbones signs.

Posted by bhola at 09:59 AM | Comments (0)

Phoenix Anarchists and O'odham youth protest toxic waste

Collin Sick, www.infoshop.org, October 17 2006

On October 12, 2006, Indigenous People’s Day, members from 7 valley groups stood outside of the Mexican consulate in Phoenix to say "No!" to a proposed chemical waste dump to be located outside the O’odham sacred village of Quitovac, in Mexico. The site would potentially treat and separate up to 45,000 tons of hazardous waste materials annually, including asbestos, organochlorides, and waste sludge from industries. The project, just a few miles south of the border, has been conducted with no involvement of the Indigenous O'odham communities.

There were approximately 25 protesters, and three detectives from the Phoenix PD, who were seen talking with two individuals the police later identified as employees of the US State Department. There were no arrests or injuries. The Phoenix Anarchist Coalition has been working with local indigenous activists for the last month, building relationship and solidarity in struggle. PAC will continue to work with the amazing activists from the O'odham Youth Collective, the Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment, and the Yoeme Youth Alliance, and lend a hand in the continuing fight for native land, human rights, and autonomy.

audio: wav file (4.6 mebibytes)

Phoenix Anarchist Coalition - 0:00 - 6:15
Kevin from the O'odham Youth Collective - 6:22 - 9:40
Miguel from Yoeme Youth Alliance - 9:41 - 11:48
Lori from Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment - 11:49 - 15:34
Chris from Gila River Alliance for a Clean Environment - 16:25 - 19:46

Text from Phoenix Anarchist Coalition's Statement of Solidarity -

PHOENIX ANARCHIST COALITION STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH
TRADITIONAL O’ODHAM TO FIGHT THE PROPOSED TOXIC WASTE DUMP AT QUITOVAC

Today Phoenix Anarchist Coalition is grateful for the opportunity to stand up in solidarity with O’odham community activists in opposing construction of a toxic waste dump near Quitovac. Quitovac is an ancient lagoon in the Sonoran Desert south of the US-Mexican border. This oasis fed by natural artesian springs is the only drinkable water in 25 miles, and so it’s not surprising that this lagoon has been continuously inhabited by humans for thousands of years. Many of them were the ancestors of the Tohono O’odham of today. The oasis at Quitovac provides habitat for a richly bio-diverse community of plants and animals as well. Quitovac is also a site that is sacred to the O’odham religious tradition, the location of their summer ceremonies for renewal. The proposed toxic waste dump is by no means the first desecration of this O’odham holy place- from corrupt Mexican government surveyors taking away nearby Tohono O’odham winter fields and giving them to land speculators, to the demolition of much of the physical structure of the oasis to make room for an aborted development scheme, to the gold mine that continues to poison nearby residents with cyanide. Nor is O’odham resistance to land grabs by outside adventurers new. Indeed, their tradition of opposition to being colonized dates back at least 350 years.

So how are things different now? For one thing, Mexico is a failing nation-state. The nationalist legacy that the Mexican government inherited from bygone conquistador empires is now crumbling. Throughout its claimed territory, campesinos, urban workers, and indigenous nations are making common cause against their common enemy- the Federales from Mexico City. They aren’t necessarily putting their faith in electoral politics, either. No, they are simply reclaiming the power over their own lives that had been taken away. Indigenous tribes are taking back the lands their ancestors lived on. Workers are fed up with union padrones who until now have sold workers’ surrender to their friends in the employing classes over empanadas and margaritas at the country club. As a result, workers in factories are creating their own grassroots labor unions to oppose the graft of the government- and business-sanctioned “official” unions. The people of Oaxaca have taken community matters into their own hands in open popular assemblies. All over Mexico, people are saying no more! Enough already! We will no longer trade our lives and our dreams for so-called populism and pseudo-socialist rhetoric! Mexico’s governing classes have made too many compromises with U.S. and world business interests at the expense of the common people of Mexico.

We are waking up as well. We are becoming increasingly aware of our power as people when we stand together in solidarity. In the past Phoenix anarchists have been honored to join with the Colorado American Indian Movement to celebrate our kinship as human beings and to oppose Denver’s extremely distasteful annual parade in memory of Columbus, the genocidal sociopath. And today we in the Phoenix Anarchist Coalition think that Quitovac is worth standing up for. The world industrial economy is jeopardizing the careful ecological balance that sustains all life on Earth. That being the case, how can we afford to let the business profiteers cause so much harm to a way of life that demonstrates how humans can live in balance, and even in abundance, in the harshest of natural environments? At one time, all our ancestors were indigenous to somewhere, until conquerors came, murdering whole cultures and violently forcing people off their land. Then they sought to consolidate their conquests by stripping human meaning away from the people’s own lives and the Earth on which they lived, instead placing the source of human meaning in the sky after you die. That is how the conquest of the indigenous happened all over the world, and that is how it continues to happen today. While we can’t all be indigenous, we can recognize that we are all family, and, if we are to survive, we must re-learn to live in balance with the Earth and with each other.

And that is why we must stand up and speak in defense of Quitovac. Things being as they are in Mexico, this is a great opportunity to build alliances in a way that promises the possibility of re-making Mexican society in accordance with the values of freedom, dignity, justice, and equality. For twelve years, the Zapatistas of Chiapas have inspired all of Mexico and even the whole world. In that same spirit, we are now deeply inspired by the O’odham and other indigenous communities whenever they stand up for their land, the integrity of their sacred sites, and their rights to self-determination. Through solidarity with them, we hope to halt and reverse the damage being done by the conqueror/settler life-way to the Earth and its people, ourselves included.

www.phoenixanarchist.org/

Posted by bhola at 09:40 AM | Comments (0)

October 17, 2006

Oak Ridge as asteroid magnet

Peter Stockton and Nick Schwellenbach, POGO.org

"There are better odds that an asteroid would hit Oak Ridge than the likelihood that terrorists would have the access and time to build and detonate an IND [improvised nuclear device--pdf]," Y-12 National Security Complex spokesman Steven Wyatt told Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Vartabedian in response to the concerns of an IND detonation a recently-released POGO report raises (pdf). (Y-12 is located near Oak Ridge, Tennessee; also located nearby is Oak Ridge National Laboratory.)

If what Wyatt says is true, then Oak Ridge must be a magnet for asteroids. Or security experts at the Department of Energy are totally wrong.

More likely though, his dismissal of the IND threat is PR spin more than anything else. The government's own security strategy of access denial--which Wyatt says Y-12 does not meet--is built around the threat of INDs. Moreover, mock attacks by force-on-force adversary teams have shown that a (not-unrealistic) team of terrorists could actually penetrate Y-12 and get to its HEU and build an IND within minutes of the initiation of an attack.

INDs are ridiculously easy to create, according to several esteemed physicists. According to Princeton University physicist Frank von Hippel, “a 100-pound mass of uranium dropped on a second 100-pound mass, from a height of about 6 feet, could produce a blast of 5 to 10 kilotons.” By comparison, the blast from the Hiroshima bomb was 13 kilotons. It killed over 200,000 people.

The concern over INDs is b