Jamshedpur, India (AHN) - At least 150 people were hospitalized on Tuesday after inhaling chlorine gas leaking from a Indian car maker's water treatment plant in Jamshedpur township in eastern India.

According to local police, residents of the township complained of dizziness as the gas leaked into their homes. The victims, including children, were rushed to hospital with complaints of suffocation and a burning sensation in the eyes. Many of then rushed into the streets and fell unconscious.

While there were no casualties, at least five persons have been admitted to the Intensive Care Unit of the Tata Motors Hospital. Hospital authorities said chlorine could prove fatal if inhaled in a large quantities.

Local media reported that about 10 percent of the gas was still in the 650-liter drum when the leak took place. This was the first time that chlorine gas had leaked from the water treatment plant that was maintained by Jamshedpur Utilities and Services Company (Jusco), a subsidiary of Tata Steel.

Tata Motors, the site of the incident, said the situation was under control and the leak has been successfully plugged. The company did not give any cause for the leak.

Chlorine gas is a pulmonary irritant with intermediate water solubility that causes acute damage in the upper and lower respiratory tract.

Long-term complications from chlorine exposure are not found in people who survive a sudden exposure unless they suffer complications such as pneumonia during therapy.

A toxic gas leak at a pesticide plant in the central city of Bhopal killed nearly 15,000 people and affected half a million in 1984. it is considered India's worst gas leak.

Papri Sri Raman, IANS, November 16, 2007

The water of the river Cauvery - one of the major rivers of south India that is considered sacred by Hindus and is used extensively for drinking and irrigation -- contains 28 toxic chemicals, a study has found.

Mettur's environment is contaminated with dioxins, furans and 52 other toxic chemicals, says a report titled 'Unfolding Disaster: A Study of Chemplast's Toxic Contamination in Mettur', released by the Chennai-based Community Environmental Monitoring (CEM).

The study of 52 chemicals traced in the area was conducted at the behest of the West Gonur Farmers Welfare Association to verify complaints by farmers of contamination of aquifers, farmlands, streams and the Cauvery by factories of Chemplast and others.

The results have led the West Gonur Farmers Welfare Association to demand that the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) declare Mettur a 'critically polluted area'.

Chemplast was found to be discharging effluents containing 28 chemicals, including five carcinogens, into the river, the study revealed. At least six of them exceed safety standards, with concentrations of vinyl chloride 546 times, Bis (2-chloroethyl) ether 257 times, 1,2-dichloroethane 82 times and 1,2-dichlorobenzene 65 times the safe levels.

'The possible combined effect of exposure to 52 chemicals points to nothing less than a public health disaster,' said Rakhal Gaitonde, a public health expert who reviewed the report.

'There is potential for serious, unpredictable and potentially irreversible consequences, as well as long-term damage to the environment, livelihoods, food and water security,' he warned.

Dioxins can cause severe immune and reproductive system disorders, as well as birth defects. Mercury too causes birth defects and damages the central nervous system. Both chemicals persist in the environment and travel and magnify up the food chain to be found in milk and fish.

The farmers had sought an independent study, saying the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board had always maintained that the discharge from chemical factories in Mettur was safe.

The independent study, however, showed that the treated wastewater was toxic and must not be emptied into the Cauvery or the ground as it contaminates bore wells.

The study was released just two days after Tamil Nadu's Agriculture Minister Veerapandi Arumugam released a report from Chemplast highlighting the company's commitment to the environment.

It reported results of nine samples -- including effluents from Chemplast Sanmar's PVC factory and groundwater, soil and sediment.

The samples were analysed for organic chemicals and mercury at US-based Specialty Analytical and for dioxins/furans at Pace Analytical Services using the US Environmental Protection Agency's protocols. The organisation said no reliable lab that could do the analyses as per US EPA protocols was found in India.

Past studies by the CPCB and the Soil Testing Laboratory have confirmed the unsuitability of well water around Chemplast for irrigation. But neither agency has analysed the water for organic chemicals.

After several earlier studies and the present CEM report, the Mettur community is now recommending a comprehensive assessment of toxicity in the region, a complete cleanup, stringent standards for effluents, better testing facilities and monitoring and a stronger public health system.

GUANGZHOU, China -- The patients arrive every day in Chinese hospitals with disabling and fatal diseases, acquired while making products for America.

On the sixth floor of the Guangzhou Occupational Disease and Prevention Hospital, Wei Chaihua, 44, sits on his iron-rail bed, tethered to an oxygen tank. He is dying of the lung disease silicosis, a result of making Char-Broil gas stoves sold in Utah and throughout the U.S.

Down the hall, He Yuyun, 36, who for years brushed America's furniture with paint containing benzene and other solvents, receives treatment for myelodysplastic anemia, a precursor to leukemia.

In another room rests Xiang Zhiqing, 39, her hair falling out and her kidneys beginning to fail from prolonged exposure to cadmium that she placed in batteries sent to the U.S.

"Do people in your country handle cadmium while they make batteries?" Xiang asks. "Do they also die from this?"

'Big problem for Americans'
With each new report of lead detected on a made-in-China toy, Americans express outrage: These toys could poison children. But Chinese workers making the toys -- and countless other products for America -- touch and inhale carcinogenic materials every day, all day long: Benzene. Lead. Cadmium. Toluene. Nickel. Mercury.

Many are dying. They have fatal occupational diseases.

Mostly they are young, in their 20s and 30s and 40s. But they are dying, slow difficult deaths, caused by the hazardous substances they use to make products for the world -- and for America. Some say these workers are paying the real price for America's cheap goods from China.

"In terms of responsibility to Chinese society, this is a big problem for Americans," said Zhou Litai, a lawyer from the city of Chongqing who has represented tens of thousands of dying workers in Chinese courts.

The toxins and hazards exist in virtually every industry, including furniture, shoes, car parts, electronic items, jewelry, clothes, toys and batteries interviews with workers confirm. The interviews were corroborated by legal documents, medical journal articles, medical records, import documents and official Chinese reports.

And although these products are being made for America most Chinese workers lack the health protections that for nearly half a century have protected U.S. workers, such as correct protective masks, booths that limit the spread of sprayed chemicals, proper ventilation systems and enforcement to ensure that their exposure to toxins will be limited to permissible doses measured in micrograms or milligrams.

Chinese workers also routinely lose fingers or arms while making American furniture, appliances and other metal goods. Their machines are too old to function properly or they lack safety guards required in the U.S.

In most cases, U.S. companies do not own these factories. American and multinational companies pay the factories to make products for America. >From tiny A to Z Mining Tools in St. George to multinational corporations such as Reebok and IKEA, companies compete in the global marketplace by reducing costs -- and that usually means outsourcing manufacturing to China. Last year, the U.S. imported $287.8 billion in goods from China, up from $51.5 billion a decade ago, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. Those imports are expected only to increase.

Never even visit the factories
Worker health and safety are considered basic human rights. But in the global economy, responsibility to workers often gets lost amid vast distances and international boundaries.

"This is a big-picture problem," said Garrett Brown, an industrial hygienist from California who has inspected Chinese factories that export to America. "Big-picture problems don't have quick or easy solutions."

The International Labor Organization (ILO) publishes international standards for workplaces. China agreed to many of those standards and also enacted a 2002 law setting its own rigorous standards. Under Chinese law, workers have the legal right to remain safe from fatal diseases and amputations at work.

But the law has not been enforced, Chinese and international experts agree. Economic growth has been a more important goal to China than worker safety.

Even the World Trade Organization, which maintains some barriers to trade to protect consumers' health, does not concern itself with issues of workers' health. As a result, enforcement of health and safety standards has been left to the governments of developing countries and the companies that outsource to those countries.

Often, smaller companies never even visit the factories where their products are made. Larger companies try with only limited success to audit operations, often complaining that their efforts are failing. Records are falsified and unsafe machines are used after audits. Safety guards are removed so workers can produce faster.

"Through auditing tours, we can make good improvements and changes, but those changes are not sustainable," complained Wang Lin, a manager for IKEA based in Shanghai. "Chinese government law enforcement is greatly needed," added Wang. "Without that, companies cannot sustain a good compliance program."

In 2005, 390,000 died
The Chinese Ministry of Health in 2005 noted at least 200 million of China's labor force of 700 million workers were routinely exposed to toxic chemicals and life-threatening diseases in factories. "More than 16 million enterprises in China have been subjecting workers to high, poisonous levels of toxic chemicals," the ministry said at a conference on occupational diseases in Beijing, which was reported by the state-controlled media. The ministry particularly blamed "foreign-funded" enterprises that exported goods.

China has more deaths per capita from work-related illnesses each year than any other country, according to the ILO. In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, 386,645 Chinese workers died of occupational illnesses, according to Chinese government data compiled by the ILO and cited in the July 14, 2006, Journal of Epidemiology. Millions more live with fatal diseases caused by factory work, other epidemiologists estimated in the article.

The number of workers living with fatal diseases does not include those who suffer amputations. Primitive, unsafe machines with blades that lack safety guards have caused millions of limb amputations since 1995, according to lawyers for Chinese workers.

The scale of the fatal diseases, deaths and amputations challenge the common wisdom -- recited in both the Chinese and American press -- that U.S. trade with China has helped Chinese factory workers improve their lives and living standards. "If I had known about the serious effects of the chemicals, I would not possibly have taken that job," said Chen Honghuan, 40, who was poisoned while handling cadmium to make batteries for export to Rayovac, EverReady, Energizer and Panasonic in the U.S.

China's 2002 Occupational Disease and Prevention Control Act established limits on workplace poisons, which in most cases are as strict or nearly as strict as U.S. regulations.

But Chinese and foreign experts agree enforcement has been lax. After the law was enacted, for example, the average benzene level in Chinese factories reported in 24 scientific journals from 2002 through 2004 was more than 11 times the allowable level, according to scientists from Fudan University of Public Health in Shanghai, writing in the November 2006 Journal of Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.

Scientists reached the same conclusion about workers' exposure to lead in the manufacture of paint, batteries, iron and steel, glass, cables and certain plastics.

"The data demonstrated that many facilities in the lead industries reported in the literature were not in compliance with the OELs [occupational exposure limits], wrote Xibiao Ye and Otto Wong in a 2006 medical journal article. "Similarly, there appeared to be only a minor impact of the 2002 Act on the reduction of occupational lead poisoning in China. The current overall occupational health-monitoring system appears inadequate, lacking the necessary enforcement."

The visitors never see
Most American businesses that import from China are small and medium-sized, U.S. shipping records show. Unlike large companies, they ordinarily do not visit the factories or check on factory conditions.

"I found the factory on the Internet two years ago," Michael Been, owner of A to Z Mining Tools in St. George, said of a factory he uses in Guizhou Province. "They have someone who writes English."

Been has never been to the factory and has no plans to visit.

Some larger companies, however, pay auditors to monitor conditions in the factories they use. But auditors' visits provide merely a "snapshot in time," business owners say. Chinese workers suggest those snapshots often are staged, with the number of toxins reduced before the visits and workers reassigned to new and safer tasks. The glimpse that visitors get of Chinese factories often is incomplete for other reasons: Many large factories have small satellite "workshops," which are much smaller factories nearby that visitors never see, according to Chinese workers interviewed for this story.

"These Americans visited the large factory, but never visited the workshop where I worked," Chen Faju, 31, said as she pointed to numerous photos in her factory's magazines of visiting Americans. "If they had visited, they would have smelled the poisons."

Chen and colleagues from the workshop were hospitalized for chronic anemia and myelodysplastic anemia, beginning in 2002, a result of brushing toxic glues for years onto the soles of New Balance and other sport shoes sold in the U.S. The shoes were made by 30,000 workers in the Yue Yuen industrial park in the city of Dongguan.

Chen's medical record, dated Feb. 14, 2007, advises that she be removed from a job of "working with organic chemicals." A manager from Chen's workshop, Du Masheng, said toxins are not used anymore.

In addition, auditors typically have been more concerned with fair wages than worker safety.

Derek Wang, a former auditor for Reebok, recalls that he and his former boss lurked outside factories at night to see if workers were working overtime so they could make sure they were paid for the additional work.

But asked for the ingredients of glues the factories used to make the shoes, Huang said he did not know. He never had glues tested for carcinogenic benzene or n-hexane.

No incentive to reform
Chinese provincial governments are responsible for checking compliance with Chinese law. But too often, officials have a financial stake in businesses, leading to corruption and 24-hour warnings before rare inspections occur, said Liu Kaiming, executive director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a Chinese think tank.

There are too few inspectors in China to monitor safety, experts say. There is one inspector for every 35,000 Chinese workers, Brown, the American industrial hygienist, calculated in a journal article. Local governments in China also do not fully understand the "adverse effects on workers' health" of occupational hazards, according to an article this year in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology.

"Chinese labor law is not that bad," said Dominique Muller, the Hong Kong director of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. "The problem is the implementation."

Added Guo Jianmei, a law professor at Beijing University who represents workers injured in factories: "The problem is that the Chinese government does not have an incentive to reform the enterprises."

Unions outlawed
In most countries, trade unions help ensure that employers abide by occupational health and safety regulations. The unions also help train workers in proper use of machines and protective equipment.

China has only one trade union, controlled by the central government. Its function is to enhance production and maintain labor discipline. Workers who try to organize or establish their own free trade unions are arrested and face lengthy prison sentences. Lawyers who have tried to help them also have been imprisoned.

"In China, there is absolutely nothing you can do," said Au Loong-yu, a researcher for the nonprofit organization Globalization Monitor in Hong Kong. "Workers have been robbed of the basic tool of self-defense, forming independent unions. And the government is biased in favor of the business sector, so it cracks down on workers who try to speak up for themselves."

Indeed, the Chinese government treats issues related to workers' rights as sensitive matters of state security. Even those workers with diseases or amputations who try to help other workers with similar conditions -- by forming independent non-government organizations (NGOs) -- have had their organizations shut down by state security police, they said in interviews.

"Now we pose as a business, as a consulting firm," said Zhu Qiang, an underground NGO leader in Shenzhen who lost his arm in a crude machine while making plastic bags for America.

Savings and profits for Americans
China's failure to permit free trade unions translates into additional cost savings for American consumers and profits for American companies, reducing the cost of manufactured imports from China from 11 percent to 44 percent, according to Columbia University law professor Mark Barenberg.

The lack of unions also makes it even more lucrative to use Chinese workers to make goods.

"In the U.S., if you are a manufacturer, you have to contribute to unemployment insurance and worker compensation insurance, you have to buy workplace environmental insurance and liability insurance, and you have to comply with the occupational health and safety law," said David Welker, research coordinator for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters in Washington, D.C.

U.S. businesses, while adamant they don't want Chinese workers to get sick or hurt, know their costs are lower because the regulatory environment is more lax.

Meanwhile, the shipping containers from China arrive every day.

Ramanuj Rastogi, the owner of Asterisk Industries was arrested from Kaiserbagh bus station this morning for producing “sub-standard” PVC pipes at a local factory.

Rastogi had closed down the factory and had gone absconding after six labourers fell ill on August 5, inhaling toxic fumes at his PVC pipe-manufacturing unit in Sarojini Nagar industrial area. While one of them, Chhotu, 18, died earlier last week. Dharmendra, 20, died at the hospital on Saturday and a third person, 35-year-old Jwala Prasad succumbed to the illness late on Sunday night. He was shifted to CSMMU today from a private hospital and his family members informed that he had worked in the factory for over six months.

Rastogi has been booked under various sections of the IPC and Factory Act and was sent to jail later in the evening.

On Saturday, a joint raid was conducted by the police and administration, following which an FIR was lodged against Rastogi and manager Ashish Shukla, for not maintaining pollution safety norms.

J S Verma, Station House Officer, Sarojini Nagar, said about a dozen people used to work in the factory in two shifts and most had fallen ill on August 5. “We did not find any emergency safety equipment. Labourers have also complained that they never got wages on time,” said Verma.

Sources said the samples collected by the Industrial Toxicology Research Centre (ITRC) and Central Institute of Plastic Engineering and Technology (CIPET) were “sub-standard”. Rastogi himself is a postgraduate from CIPET.

Experts have confirmed that substandard raw material was being used to reduce the “production cost”. The raw material used is “at least Rs 15 per kg less than the standard raw material”.

Police said two drums of chemicals were also recovered. Experts feel that a harmful chemical reaction and the toxic fumes had led to the death of the labourers. The final report is still awaited.

Denying the allegations, Rastogi said: “I buy raw material from two or three Delhi-based suppliers. Besides, none of the raw material used in the factory is blacklisted as per the norms laid by the PCB and my unit comes under non-hazardous category.”

“Shukla,” he added, “used to bring in labourers from the neighboring villages and trained them. I used to visit the factory only to handle technical snag. When the labourers fell ill, Shukla started receiving threatening phone calls and informed me about it.” Rastogi said that the labourers often consumed ganja during work hours, which might have led to the fateful incident.

BHARUCH-ANKLESHWAR: WITH DEATH OF 3 GIRLS AT CLOSED UNIT, POSERS ON SAFEGUARDS CROP UP

Vadodara, November 13: SIX deaths have taken place within four months in two separate incidents of industrial accidents in Ankleshwar’s GIDC unit, while there has been one fatality at the Panoli industrial unit in the neighbourhood which has a high concentration of chemical industries. While authorities made no breakthrough in the mysterious deaths of three girls on Sunday in a closed chemical unit at the Ankleshwar GIDC, they have sought the services of health officials to ascertain if it could be a case of food poisoning.

A month ago, two women and one man had died in an explosion at a unit after release of chemicals in the main effluent drainage pipeline.

These were casual labourers residing in the GIDC area next to Pragna Chemicals in the Ankleshwar GIDC area. According to Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) officials, some unit had released untreated chemical waste in the effluent drainage which led to a reaction and thereafter an explosion in the nearby tank.

In another such incident around four months ago, a chemical factory worker, Rajendra Bachhansingh, succumbed to severe injuries due to gas leakage at Pesticides India in the Panoli GIDC region. Sources said that such incidences are more frequent at pesticide units than other industries due to a chemical reaction-prone environment.

There are around 1,200 chemicals units in the Bharuch-Ankleshwar region.

In Sunday’s incident where three girls—Kamliben Garvala (18), Kasmi (17), and Anu (7)—died in mysterious circumstances in a closed chemical unit, the Bharuch police have now sought the help of health officials to ascertain if they could have died of food poisoning.

While awaiting the post-mortem and forensic laboratory reports, investigating officer Vijay Soma said, ‘‘We have started recording the statements of everyone in the neighbourhood to know if they experienced any effects of gas emission, but no one seems to confirm it.’’

In addition to GPCB officials, Industrial Safety and Health Department deputy director P J Gamit said, ‘‘We did not find any evidence of gas leakage there. In recent times, we have imposed strict laws for industrial safety in the region.’’

Meanwhile, if the cause of death in Sunday’s incident is not ascertained, the girls’ family will not get the compensation amount they are entitled to under provision of industrial safety laws.

Bharuch district collector Murli Krishna said for the moment they are not considering any compensation, as the cause of death is yet to be established, and also the unit was closed.

Three sisters died in gas leak in a factory in GIDC estate in Ankleshwar town of Bharuch district. These sisters worked in Narmada Chemicals which was closed at the time of incident.

Two sisters had gone for bath in the factory. However, they started shouting and by the time the third sister reached there the two were faint. Before the third girl could understand anything she also fell down.

On hearing the shouts, the father of these girls Deep Singh reached the spot. They were taken to the hospital where two were found dead and the third one died after sometime.

BHARUCH: Three labourers working in Narmada Oil ETL located in Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) of Ankleshwar died under mysterious circumstances on Sunday morning. The trio, identified as Kasma Garwal (18), Kamila Garwal (19) and Anu Garwal (7) died on their way to the hospital.

The deceased were working as labourers in the company for last few months. The victims had gone to take a bath when the incident occurred. The company was closed for the last 10 years and was recently purchased by a local person.

Earlier, gas leakage was suspected to be the reason behind the deaths, officials of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB), who rushed to the spot, said there was no gas leakage.

"It is still a mystery how these people died. There is no possibility of gas leakage. No production activity is going on inside the place," said GPCB regional officer of Bharuch, V R Gadge.

Most companies surrounding Narmada Oil have also been closed for quite sometime.

When asked whether the effluent-carrying drainage line passing just behind Narmada Oil may have caused the leakage, Gadge said, "A team of GPCB officials have looked into all possible angles and there is no gas leakage." The matter is also being investigated by Bharuch police.

Dow Chemical Co. officials said that as of Tuesday, 179 of 405 properties had been visited and their soil collected.

"This is more than enough for us to achieve the statistically valid results we hope to get," Dow spokesman John Musser said.

The sampling is part of Dow’s efforts to resolve the local dioxin contamination problem. First on the agenda is a bioavailability study which will determine how much dioxin is absorbed into the body from soil that is ingested. Since the amount can vary based on the type of soil, Dow needs samples of the different types in Midland.

"That’s the number one reason for soil sampling in Midland," Musser said.

The state estimates the level of dioxin absorbed. By finding real-life numbers based on real-life data, the 90 parts per trillion state standard for dioxin could potentially be readjusted for Midland. If the shift were upward because the rate of absorption was found to be lower, the dioxin problem could be resolved for large portions of Midland. Many areas have borderline dioxin levels just slightly over the 90 ppt.

The second reason for soil sampling is the testing for the levels of dioxins, furans and other chemical compounds.

Results of testing, which will be disclosed in a way that keeps individual properties from being identified and linked to their levels except in cases where the numbers exceed federal action levels, are expected after the first of the year.

Field work on the dioxin issue in the Tittabawassee River also is progressing. Crews have clocked 6,000 man hours and collected 2,600 soil samples at 600 locations along the river in the last 90 days. "That’s a task no one has completed in the history of man," said Peter Simon of Ann Arbor-based ATS, which is conducting the study called GeoMorphing.

The goal is to first find out how the river works; what its erosion and deposition patterns are. Based on that knowledge, a plan can be developed to address the contamination without making it worse by stirring up settled but contaminated sediment.

He said that analyzing the data, a task that usually takes longer than a week, is being done in about 48 hours. "We’ve consumed most of the lab capacity on the Midwest," Simon said.

The quick turnaround has enabled the team to move through the investigation on a near "real-time" basis, get through the field season before snow sets in, and begin developing a remedial investigation work plan for the river based on the data. That plan is expected to be submitted to the state in December.

I might have been a fiction writer in a former life, but these days as a journalist, I mostly deal in facts. The fact is, I grew up in the shadow of a Dow chemical factory, in the suburb of Paritutu, New Plymouth, during all the dioxin years.

I lived there from 1957 to 1971, from age 3 to 17 years. Our house was the first on Simons St.

As the crow flies, it was the closest to the chemical plant - less than 500m away. The house number was 13, but it never struck anyone as being unlucky. Instead, it promised a blessed, good life in a new suburb, on a small but spectacular coastal peninsular, a short walk to the beach or down to the wharf to fish.

Touted as a great place to raise a family, the suburb of Paritutu was indeed a kids' paradise. We chased pheasants through the lupins and picked lilies from the creeks. Ate blackberries off the bushes and sucked sourgrass stalks. We walked miles to school and dawdled home again. And the sun shone, as it always seems to do in retrospective childhood.

At the time my father bought the property, the land was zoned residential. I still remember his frustration and anger when he was suddenly advised by the local council that everything over our back fence was to be re-zoned industrial. Meetings were held, he and other residents argued, but eventually re-zoning went ahead. We watched Ivon Watkins Dow Ltd grow box-like on our landscape, followed by VetMed Laboratories, Youngs Rubber Company and an oil tank farm.

My father was very protective of his five daughters. He did his best to keep us safe. Yet never once was he privy to the dangers the Dow chemical plant imposed.

I have all the anecdotes, as every child who grew up in that neighbourhood does. Of the foam that flew on a certain breeze and landed on the lawn, leaving burnt orange circles. Of native bushes that failed on one side. Of curtains that rotted against the sills. Of our mother crying: "Shut the windows. The wind has changed". Of visitors complaining of the all-invasive stench and wrinkling up their noses, not only at the smell, but at us crazy people, living within breathing distance of some chemical industry.

Why didn't we move, they asked? "Where to?" our father, a postal worker, replied. Who could afford to move? Who would buy the house, anyway? No, this was it, he said, this was "our" house, and we were there for good. It can't be too bad or they wouldn't have let those buggers build that factory there.

My father collected the empty chemical drums that lay around in their puddles of orange sludge, washed them and planted trees in them that wouldn't survive.

Down on the sand at Back Beach, we walked in the waves where the oily slick from the effluent pipe left orange marks on our skin. Later, my mother served in the Dow canteen, bringing home left-over food. Everything delivered "tasted funny", but to kids of the 50s and 60s, a raspberry bun was a raspberry bun, a doughnut a doughnut. We ate the food, anyway. When she took on work as a cleaner at VetMed, those of us still at home took turns to help her scrub the black rubber boot marks off the floor.

Miraculously, I escaped the explosion of 1972, though my parents and three of my sisters still lived close enough to eye-witness the blast. I have since learned that there have been two dozen such explosions around the world, and they are all listed as world dioxin-contaminated disasters, but nowhere will you find the Paritutu explosion recorded on a global map.

Ignorance is not bliss, but then sometimes neither is higher learning. Here we are in 2006, and as a diminished family, we've come to understand what prolonged exposure to dioxin has done to us.

Journalist Melanie Reid's remarkably easy to digest, but hard to stomach, 90-minute Let Us Spray documentary has aired (on TV3, October 23). Dioxin is all over the country, but this time it's in the news. Finally, there is fallout that's not coming air borne from the direction of IWD.

It's been proven that the Government knew of the dangers and chose not to tell us. It's been proven they kept silent and then went so far as to actually manipulate data, gathered from Paritutu residents through serum testing, to ensure the wool was pulled completely over our eyes. The test process itself was flawed. Government policy seems to have been money over people. A multi-national company over native New Zealanders.

The serum testing was nothing more than window dressing, damage control taken to new heights. Why are we surprised? This is the same Ministry of Health which expected us to be happy with the appointment of Professor Allan Smith to take a fresh new look at the study. Smith was caught on camera saying publicly how great he thought that serum study was.

For the record, I didn't front up for the serum testing, as I already believed it was designed to do exactly what it did - let health officials off the hook instead of making them accountable. But I'll stand head of the line when it comes to DNA testing. I can no longer deny that dioxin from the Dow factory has damaged me in ways I couldn't see.

Let's get personal here. I keep good health. I used to think, somehow, I'd escaped the dioxin threat. Yes, I had a sister who died of cancer at 36. Yes, she'd had a baby who died at 8 months gestation but was delivered full term. Yes, one of those photos taken by midwife Hyacinth Henderson - who suddenly found herself in the midst of a birth defect epidemic and got her camera out - was probably of my unknown and unnamed niece. And yes, my father died of heart disease at 59 and my mother of cancer a decade later, but me? Nope, not me. Never me. Somehow, I remained immune, as my own five children had.

When advised by those in a position to know that my dioxin levels were likely to be higher than those of Vietnam vets directly sprayed with Agent Orange, I shook my head and dismissed the idea. Nope. Couldn't be. They said other awful things: if my levels turned out to be lower than expected, then it was probably because I'd breastfed all five of my babies, and dioxin is secreted through breast milk. "What do you mean?" I asked. Everyone knows that breast is best. Isn't it?

Still, I filed all that away and tried to forget about it, which was fine until the next generation appeared. So, talk to me about intergenerational genetic damage. Ask me about heart defects and hydrocephalus, because I'm something of a pseudo-expert now. New members of our family have been born with the exact same conditions as those commonly found in third generation Vietnam vets. I put my hand up to be counted.

Cuddalore, the place by the sea, is soon set to be assaulted. Some of the dirtiest industries – chemical factories, petrochemical refineries, a shipbuilding yard, textile dyeing units, and coal-fired power plants – are making a beeline for Cuddalore. The Tamilnadu Government has earmarked Cuddalore district for locating polluting industries. Their argument: Cuddalore is already polluted. So let's concentrate all polluting industries in this district, thereby saving the rest of Tamilnadu from pollution.

Fact aside, that only one part of Cuddalore – the SIPCOT Industrial Estate in Pachaiyankuppam, Kudikadu and Semmankuppam panchayats – is polluted. The rest of Cuddalore is home to white-sand beaches, dense mangroves, lazy rivers, cashew groves and casuarinas.

I have heard about this decision to sacrifice Cuddalore repeated often. At least two chairpersons of the Tamilnadu Pollution Control Board have admitted over the last 8 years that Cuddalore's fate is sealed. . .that a decision to sacrifice Cuddalore has been taken at the highest levels.

Indiscriminate dumping of toxic wastes has spoilt agricultural fields and groundwater.

The kind of industrialization that is planned for Cuddalore will mean the death of Cuddalore as we know it. Pollution-intensive industrialization has its beneficiaries in far-away places. The local people and the local economy will take a punishing beating.

On the one hand, people dependent on water and land for a livelihood – fishers and farmers – will lose their source of income. On the other, the ill-health caused by a poisoned environment will mean fewer work days, and higher medical expenses.

There are industries, and there are industries. Industries that destroy local resources, poison the air, water and land will eventually impoverish the local people rather than lend to their prosperity.

How do I know? Because we have experience of this kind of chemical-intensive industrialization in Cuddalore, and we know that it has made local people poorer.

All you have to do is check out the 8 km stretch south of Pachaiyankuppam on the Cuddalore-Chidambaram Highway. The SIPCOT industrial estate located here has been judged by many as ranking among the smelliest places in India. About 19 chemical industries, manufacturing pesticides, pharmaceuticals, dye chemicals, explosives, gelatin and sundry chemicals, spew out noxious air emissions and liquid effluents.

Contaminated groundwater does not spare even the utensils it is stored in.

Just as Eskimos have a thousand words to describe the snow, SIPCOT residents have numerous descriptions for the various smells that assault their senses day-long. SPIC smells of shit; Tagros smells like a hospital; Shasun smells like rotten cabbage, rotten eggs; Pioneer Miyagi smells like a decomposing corpse; Asian Paints smells like sapota fruit. Then there are other smells – nail polish, rotten egg, fruity odours. In all, the SIPCOT Area Community Environmental Monitors (SACEM) – a team of five villagers trained in environmental monitoring – have identified at least 36 odours emanating from the SIPCOT industries.

Surely, progress can't be this smelly. These smells are not merely a nuisance; anybody that tells you that is lying. Odours are indicators of pollution, of chemicals in the air. Hydrogen sulphide, a deadly gas, has a characteristic rotten egg odour. The nail polish odour indicates the presence of acetone. Rotten cabbage is the smell of your cooking gas resulting from the chemical methyl mercaptan. The shit smell means the presence of a category of chemicals called Indoles.

Indeed, when samples of the ambient air in SIPCOT was sent to the United States for analysis by SACEM, at least 25 chemicals were discovered. Eight of them are known to cause cancer. These include – chloroform, methylene chloride, trichloroethylene, 1,2-dichloroethane, carbon tetrachloride, vinyl chloride, bromomethane and benzene.

1,2-dichloroethane was more than safe levels by a factor of 22,973; chloroform was above safe levels by a factor of 5119.

At least 13 of the chemicals found are used as raw material in one or more industries. In other words, toxic chemicals are constantly spilling out of the factories through chimneys and various other leaks and contaminating the air breathed by more than 20,000 people.

The effects are there for all to see. Children in the SIPCOT villages can be seen with rheumy eyes, running noses and rashes on the skin. The eye and nose disorders are indicative of upper respiratory tract problems – a likely sign of air pollution. Anecdotal evidence gathered during the visit of Justice J. Kanakaraj and team as part of the Indian People's Tribunal revealed shocking information. Women in SIPCOT were reporting menstrual irregularities, delayed onset of puberty among girls, compromised physical development among boys, widespread dental and skin problems.

These long-term effects pale in front of the acute effects people experience when the air pollution gets intense. "We can't breathe; it feels like somebody is sitting on your chest. Whatever is in the air burns your eyes, tears through your nose and sets your lungs on fire. At least we can hold a cloth to our nose; imagine the fate of infants," said one irate mother from Eachangadu, a village surrounded on three sides by smelly factories.

Several 100 acres of fertile farm land have been abandoned because ground water in the entire SIPCOT area is contaminated, and the lands are awash with effluents and toxic waste. The River Uppanar, once the lifeline for more than 8 villages of inland fisherfolk, is now a faint shadow of its original productive self. Ask any fisherman and he will rattle off the names of at least 30 kinds of fishes that used to be found in the River. Now, less than 8 commercial species are found.

In all this, the TNPCB and the State Government have played villains, colluding with the polluters and punishing residents when they complain about pollution. Many of the industries function outside the law. CUSECS -- a company that was set up with Government participation to collect treated effluents and discharge it into the Bay of Bengal -- is completely illegal. It has no permits whatsoever. Information about quality of effluents discharged from CUSECS was recently obtained by SACEM using Right to Information. That information revealed that CUSECS was not merely illegal, but was discharging highly toxic and untreated effluents into the sea. The long-term effect on fisheries and consumers of Cuddalore fish can be devastating.

A fisherman displays a fish damaged by pollutants in the River Uppanar

The verdict on Cuddalore is straightforward. The State Human Rights Commission, the Indian People's Tribunal headed by Justice J. Kanakaraj, and various other agencies both Governmental and non-Governmental have said that Cuddalore is overpolluted, and the people are ill. They have recommended that no further polluting industries be allowed in Cuddalore. But nobody is listening.

Despite intense opposition, the Government is pushing ahead with a proposal by Chemplast Sanmar to set up a factory to manufacture PVC plastic. PVC is one of the most toxic plastics. Its production, usage and disposal are all associated with the release of highly toxic chemicals, including dioxins and furans which are the most toxic chemicals known to science.

The scenic sand dunes of Naduthittu are earmarked for a ultra-mega coal-fired thermal plant which will throw out tones of sulphur dioxide into the air, and release a flyash slurry that will convert the bountiful ocean floor into a concrete cemetery.

Effluents from Tirupur textile units, and from the Ambur-Vaniyambadi leather tanneries are also rumoured to be making their way to the Cuddalore seas via long-distance pipelines. All in all, Cuddalore is set to become the smelly, sweaty armpit of industrial civilization.

Some may call this progress or development. But for the people who live in Cuddalore, this is hell. The ones that can afford to have already left Cuddalore. The unfortunate ones and the elderly have no option but to stay in what has now become a gas chamber.

Young fishermen in the River Uppanar. Will the river still be alive when these boys grow up?

If you're concerned and want to help:

Contact: nopvcever@gmail.com

Visit: www.sipcotcuddalore.com

Tel: +91 9444082401

Terry Miller has had enough of the sampling, the testing and the planning. He wants action.

A leader of the Bay City-based Lone Tree Council environmental group, Miller voiced his concern during Wednesday's quarterly dioxin community meeting at the Horizons Conference Center in Saginaw Township.

The gathering featured slide presentations detailing progress of ongoing contamination tests conducted in the mid-Michigan region.

It also included more detailed analysis from David H. Garabrant, a University of Michigan medicine and epidemiology professor who disclosed the majority of the results from a $15 million dioxin exposure probe in August.

"With all due respect, we don't need to hear from Dr. Garabrant again," Miller said. "We would like to hear about successful remediated sites to see what can be done."

Miller criticized members of Ann Arbor Technical Services Inc., which Dow Chemical Co. contracted to conduct soil samplings along a six-mile stretch of the Tittabawassee River.

Earlier in the meeting, which drew about 70 people, Peter Simon, project manager, explained the early findings of the study.

"Why weren't remedial techniques used during the evaluation of that site?" Miller asked him.

Simon said the plan calls for a cleanup strategy but only after researchers better understand some of the river's characteristics. "We need to be careful before we decide what we do," he said.

Workers have collected 2,600 samples from 600 locations along the confluence of the Tittabawassee and Chippewa rivers, logging more than 6,000 hours of work.

"We've been busy peeling back the layers of the onion (of soil sediment along the river) to see more than 100 years ago," Simon said.

Some results are available.

Early analysis shows "little contamination" in the portion of the stretch considered a floodplain, he said. The majority of the contaminants are under layers of soil in other ends of the river, he said.

Simon said the purpose of the study is to determine the best strategy to prevent the contaminated sediment from moving downriver.

Miller wasn't the only audience member critical of the meeting's presenters.

Kathy Henry, a 48-year-old Freeland resident and a chief litigant in a class-action lawsuit filed against Dow in March 2003, panned what she called "downplayed results" in Garabrant's study. His findings show age is the largest factor in determining the amount of dioxin blood levels, not the location of a homeowner's property.

Scientists have linked dioxin, a group of contaminants present downstream and downwind of Dow's Midland complex, to some forms of cancer, reproductive problems and weakened immune systems in laboratory animals.

The study shows people living in the Tittabawassee River floodplain near Dow had 32 parts of dioxin for every trillion parts of blood compared to 25 parts, around the national average, in those living in a study group in the Jackson and Calhoun regions.

Garabrant said the difference has more to do with age than location. People living around Dow are older than those living in the control site.

Henry said such observations underplay the dangers of the dioxin levels.

She said the information should raise concerns for mid-Michigan residents in the same way the dangers of secondhand smoke and lead poisoning from overseas-built toys raise alarm for children.

"(The study shows), 'It's just a little bit; it's no big deal,' " Henry said. "It's morally wrong (to say that). Dioxin can cause cancer."

Garabrant said the data speak for themselves. "It is what it is," he told her.

Justin Engel is a staff writer for The Saginaw News. You may reach him at 776-9691.

Imperial College London is launching a one-year, full-time Master of Research (MRes) course in Green Chemistry, it is announced today. The course will allow postgraduate students to develop their skills in a rapidly growing field which aims to 'clean up' the chemical industry, making industrial processes cleaner, greener and more efficient for the benefit of the environment.

Green Chemistry is an emerging discipline which is being propelled to the forefront of chemistry research by pressure on industry to reduce waste and pollution, and by consumers' increasing awareness of and concern with environmental issues. Advances in Green Chemistry in recent years have seen chemical processes being cut in length and complexity, resulting in less energy being used to make drugs and other products, while some international firms have reduced the amounts of hazardous waste they produce by millions of tonnes.

The new Green Chemistry course at Imperial is being set up to build on these successes by supporting future scientists to hone their skills in the field. The course will offer a multi-disciplinary approach to the subject which will expose students to topics as diverse as biotechnology, renewable energy, environmental policy, and chemical synthesis and catalysis, with both taught and research components.

Postgraduate students embarking on the course will be supported by an established and renowned Sustainable Chemistry group at Imperial's Department of Chemistry. This group's research includes searching for new ways of producing plastics using plants and other biological materials, instead of the petrochemicals that currently make almost all of the plastics used on a daily basis such as carrier bags and cling film.

Professor Tom Welton from Imperial's Department of Chemistry, who will be leading the new MRes course, said: "We're delighted to be able to offer up-coming chemists the chance to study for this masters course which will give them an excellent grounding in Green Chemistry, and which will be an ideal preparation for a PhD and research career in this essential field.

"The stereotypical image of the energy-guzzling chemical industry, polluting the air and creating hazardous waste products is no longer compatible with governments' and consumers' concern for the environment. The chemicals industries have made a good start, but we need to develop the next generation of researchers to take this to the next level, so that chemical and pharmaceutical companies can continue to provide much needed products without putting such a strain on our environment and natural resources."

The Masters of Research in Green Chemistry will have its first intake in the academic year 2007/2008. Applications to the course will be accepted from with immediate effect, and students wishing to find out more about the course should go to: MRes in Green Chemistry: Energy and the Environment.

For further information please contact:

Danielle Reeves
Imperial College London Press Office
Tel: +44 (0)20 759 42198
Mob: +44 (0)7803 886248
Email: Danielle.reeves@imperial.ac.uk

Notes to Editors:

1. Consistently rated in the top three UK university institutions, Imperial College London is a world leading science-based university whose reputation for excellence in teaching and research attracts students (11,500) and staff (6,000) of the highest international quality. Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that enhance the quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk

THERE was joy from his victims, a sense of justice from relatives of those he killed, and a studied satisfaction from foreign ministers when it was announced Saddam Hussein would hang for committing crimes against humanity.

But there were almost universal fears the ruling by an Iraqi court would plunge the country into further chaos and questions about whether the former dictator could ever have received a fair trial.
British reaction came swiftly, with Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett saying Saddam had been "held to account". Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said the verdict and sentencing were a matter for the Iraqi people, adding "they deserve the support of the international community in ensuring that the decisions reached by the court are respected".

But former Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane, the Rotherham MP, spoke for many when he welcomed the verdict but balked at the sentence.

"This is a man who is guilty of some of the worst crimes against humanity in human history," he said.

"He's been tried in a muslim court by Iraqis and the verdict I welcome but, being against capital punishment in principle, I urge the Iraqi Government not to sentence him to death.

"States take too many lives as it is, and I don't think they need to take any more in cold blood."

That call was taken up by human rights organisation Amnesty International, which said it "deplored" the sentence after a "flawed and unfair" trial.

Malcolm Smart, Director of the Middle East and North Africa programme, said: "This trial should have been a major contribution towards establishing justice and the rule of law in Iraq, and in ensuring truth and accountability for the massive human rights violations perpetrated by Saddam Hussein's rule, "In practice, it has been a shabby affair, marred by serious flaws that call into question the capacity of the tribunal, as currently established, to administer justice fairly, in conformity with international standards."

Many European nations also voiced opposition to the death penalty, including France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, and a leading Italian opposition figure called on the continent to press for Saddam's sentence to be commuted to life imprisonment.

There were also warnings from the Muslim world that highlighted the tensions facing allied forces in Iraq.

In Pakistan, the opposition religious coalition claimed American forces had caused more deaths in Iraq in the past three-and-a-half years than Saddam did during his 23-year reign, and insisted US president George W Bush should stand trial for war crimes.

"Who will punish the Americans and their lackeys who have killed many more people than Saddam Hussein?" asked Hafiz Hussain Ahmed, a senior lawmaker from the Mutahida Majlis-e-Amal coalition, which is critical of Pakistan's military cooperation with the US.

Dr Muhammad Abdul Bari, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain,said: "There are concerns about whether Saddam Hussein was ever going to receive a fair trial in Iraq given the sectarian tension that are rife.

"Furthermore, there will be many in the Muslim world who will be asking when those responsible for launching the calamitous war in Iraq, in which tens of thousands on innocent people have died, will also be brought to justice."

Those who had witnessed and personally suffered the cruelty of Saddam's regime did not criticise the sentence.

Sarbast Karim was a 12-year-old primary school pupil in Hallabjah in 1988 when Saddam's forces gassed about 5,000 Kurds, including women and children. Now, 30, he is settling into a new life in Hull.
He said: "I am happy. Generally, I am against the death penalty but Saddam is an exception. He is a wicked man, a murderer and he tried to destroy my people.

"I can still remember hearing the bombs and seeing the bodies. Even now there are babies born with defects and women having miscarriages. Hallabjah has not recovered."

Hazhar Sultan, an Iraqi Kurd, fled to East Yorkshire seven years ago to escape Saddam's henchmen.

"I am going to have the biggest party," he said. "Saddam ruined my life. He killed my relatives and drove me from my homeland and now we have got justice. They should have hanged him when they found him."

THE ACCUSED AND THE SENTENCES

Saddam Hussein – sentenced to death for crimes against humanity after ordering the killing of 148 Shias in the village of Dujail in 1982.
Saddam's half-brother Barzan Ibrahim and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, the head of Iraq's former Revolutionary Court, are also sentenced to death by hanging for their part in the massacre.

Former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan convicted of murder and given a life term.

Fellow Baath Party officials Abdullah Kazim Ruwayyid, his son Mizhar Abdullah Ruwayyid and Ali Dayih Ali sentenced to 15 years in prison for torture and premeditated murder.

Mohammed Azawi Ali, another former party official, acquitted for lack of evidence.

Saddam still faces further trials over other alleged major atrocities.

Twists and bloody turns in trial full of drama

YESTERDAY'S death sentence marks the end in a series of dramatic and bloody twists which have hallmarked the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Although visibly shaken by the sentence, Saddam the showman still managed a dramatic outburst as the eyes of the world looked upon him.
The charges related to the killing of 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail in 1982. Saddam's trial heard that he ordered the slaughter in revenge for an assassination attempt.

During one of his court appearances, a defiant Saddam said the proceedings were merely "theatre".

The first criminal case against him was filed in June 2005. The trial got under way that October, with Saddam challenging the court's legitimacy.

In October 2005, masked gunmen kidnapped defence attorney Saadoun al-Janabi after he left his Baghdad office. His body was found the next day with bullet holes in the head.

The next month, defence lawyer Adel al-Zubeidi was killed in a Baghdad ambush and a colleague, Thamir al-Khuzaie, was wounded. Mr Al-Khuzaie fled the country.

In November 2005, the trial reconvened following a five-week recess. Saddam called Americans "occupiers and invaders" and he and two other defendants complained about their treatment.

The following month, one of the five judges stepped down after learning that a Saddam co-defendant may have been involved in his brother's execution.

The next day, defence lawyers walked out when denied the right to challenge the court's legitimacy.

The ruling was then reversed and the former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a member of Saddam's defence team, was permitted to speak.
In the same month Saddam refused to attend court. The previous day he had yelled: "I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!"
He also claimed Americans had beaten and tortured him and other defendants.

At the beginning of this year, chief judge Rizgar Amin, a Kurd, resigned after complaints by Shiite politicians that he had failed to keep control of proceedings.

He was replaced by Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman – but Saddam's lawyers accused him of bias and threatened to boycott the trial unless he also stepped down.

The judge's home town of Halabja was subjected to a 1988 poison gas attack allegedly ordered by the former president.

In June this year defence lawyer Khamis al-Obeidi was abducted and killed and Saddam and three others refused food in protest at a lack of security for lawyers.

On the 17th day of his hunger strike, Saddam was taken to hospital and fed through a tube.

Ex-dictator would prefer firing squad to gallows

Saddam Hussein has been sentenced to death by hanging in an Iraqi court after being found guilty of crimes against humanity – but that is not the way the former dictator wants to die.

The Arab country's law declares that death should be by hanging.

The fiery former leader has already said that he would rather be shot by a firing squad than face the gallows "as a common criminal". Saddam told judge Rauf Abdel Rahman: "I ask you being an Iraqi person that if you reach a verdict of death, execution, remember that I am a military man and should be killed by firing squad."

A request for the death penalty first came from chief prosecutor Jaafar al-Moussawi.

Now that that sentence has been served on Saddam – who has been on trial since October 19 2005 – his case will automatically go to appeal. It will be heard before a chamber of nine judges who have to convene within 10 days but could take several months to reach a conclusion. During the appeal process, the judges can call any person who gave evidence at the original trial but cannot call new witnesses.
If the judges agree that Saddam should be sentenced to death, the former leader will have to be executed within 30 days of that decision.

According to the New York Times, Saddam told his lawyer Khalil al-Dulaimi last week that he expected the death sentence and was not afraid to die.

But questions have been raised about the validity of the trial with accusations that the largely Shiite government was desperate to secure a conviction.

Yesterday, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki said he hoped the former leader would be given "what he deserves" and last month he said he hoped Saddam would be hanged.

To complicate things further, Saddam is currently being prosecuted in a second trial, which began in August.

The trial alleges acts of genocide involving the killing of more than 50,000 Iraqi Kurds in 1987-88.

It is not known what impact the death sentence will have on that trial, which is not expected to finish before next summer. But Shiite officials are said to want his execution to take place as early as the spring without waiting for the outcome of the second set of proceedings.

If the execution does go ahead, Saddam's lawyer has predicted that "the doors of hell will open in Iraq" with severe repercussions on coalition forces, particularly the US. Mr al-Dulaimi said: "The sectarian divide in the country will deepen, and many more coffins will be sent back to America. "And the disaster will not be limited to Iraq. Hatreds will be sown between Americans and Arabs that will last for years."

Brutality began in days... and lasted for decades

Days after he had grabbed power Saddam Hussein summoned 400 officials to announce he had uncovered a plot. The conspirators, he said, were in that very room.

As the 42-year-old puffed on a cigar, the plotters' names were read out. As each was called, secret police led them away, executing 22. To make sure his countrymen got the message, Saddam videotaped the whole thing and sent copies around the country.

The plot was a lie, but in a few terrifying minutes on July 22, 1979, Saddam had eliminated any rivals – consolidating the power he wielded for almost three decades.

The brutality helped him survive war with Iran, defeat in Kuwait, rebellions, international sanctions, plots and conspiracies. In the end, however, it was his undoing. Saddam surrounded himself with sycophants, selected for loyalty rather than ability. When he was forced out, he left a country impoverished and beset by ethnic and sectarian tensions.

His conviction for crimes against humanity – and his sentencing to death by hanging – were just the latest, and perhaps one of the last, scenes in a long and bloody drama.

He ended up being dragged from a hole by American soldiers in December 2003, bearded, dishevelled and with his arms in the air.

Image and illusion were his important tools. He sought to build an image as an all-wise, all-powerful champion of the Arab nation. Yet his style was closer to a backwoods clan chief – giving favours in return for absolute loyalty while dealing harshly with detractors.
He promoted the illusion of a powerful Iraq – with the world's fourth largest army and weapons of terrible destruction. Yet his army crumbled in weeks when confronted by the Americans and their allies in Kuwait in 1991. And in 2003, his capital of Baghdad fell to a single American task force.

Saddam's weapons of mass destruction also proved a bluff. His scientists didn't have the nerve to tell him that his dreams were beyond the country's industrial capability. Instead, he squandered the money on vast palaces. It was a universe away from the harsh poverty he was born into, on April 28, 1937, in the village of Ouja near Tikrit. His father, a landless shepherd, died or disappeared before he was born. His stepfather, Ibrahim al-Hassan, treated Saddam harshly.
The young Saddam ran away and lived with an uncle, a staunchly anti-British, anti-Semitic figure whose daughter would become Saddam's wife.

Aged 20, Saddam joined the Baath Party, a radical, secular Arab nationalist group. A year later, he fled to Cairo after taking part in an attempt to assassinate the country's ruler and was sentenced to death in absentia.

Saddam returned four years later after the ruler was overthrown by his party. But the Baath leadership was itself ousted eight months later and Saddam was imprisoned. He escaped in 1967.

In July 1968 the Baath party came back to power under the leadership of Saddam's cousin, Gen. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr. Saddam – his deputy – systematically purged key party figures, deported thousands of Shiites and supervised the takeover of Iraq's oil industry.

But when Al-Bakr decided in 1979 to seek unity with neighbouring Syria, Saddam forced his cousin out – and then purged his rivals. Hundreds more were killed in the following months.

Saddam went on to launch a war against Iran that would last for eight years, cost hundreds of thousands of lives and devastate Iraq's economy. Saddam turned to the US, France and Britain for weapons, and they turned a blind eye when Saddam ruthlessly struck against Iraqi Kurds. An estimated 5,000 died in a chemical weapons attack on Halabja in March 1988.

Only two years after making peace with Iran, Saddam invaded Kuwait. The United Nations imposed sanctions, and in early 1991, a US-led coalition attacked in what Saddam famously called "the mother of all battles".

The Iraqis were quickly driven out of Kuwait, but Saddam boasted that his political survival was proof that Iraq had won its war against America.

The war triggered uprisings among Iraq's Shiites, but they were brutally crushed by Saddam. The Kurds, more lucky, carved out a self-ruled area in the north under US and British air cover.
The sanctions were not lifted because the US accused Saddam of retaining weapons of mass destruction and his refusal to meet UN demands for disclosure of his illegal weapons program provided the US-led coalition with a justification for war.

The American-led force struck on March 20, 2003. Within three weeks, Iraq's army had collapsed, Baghdad had fallen and Saddam fled into hiding. In October 2005 he went on trial before an Iraqi judge.

The Philippine forests are threatened

WHERE can you find a country acclaimed as a biodiversity superstar yet made out a prostitute to foreign extractive industries, even as its pristine forests are being denuded; its mountains laid bare and flattened; its fertile soil and pure aquifers poisoned and laid waste; and its precious fresh-water bodies and seas contaminated?

Where can you find a people turned into unknowing guinea pigs by unscrupulous transnational corporations in an experiment that threatens the food chain and the entire ecological fabric? The country’s rich biodiversity is being threatened by genetically engineered organisms (GEOs or GMOs), just as our farmers are realizing the advantages of organic farming over the “sophisticated” model that uses chemical pesticides and fertilizers, and an awakened world has put a higher premium on organic products and is rejecting GEOs.

To complete the national betrayal and criminal assault on the Filipino people’s environmental and human rights comes the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), opening the Philippines to all kinds of wastes, including toxic and hazardous wastes, from that country. The agreement degrades not only our environment but also our very humanity, dignity and self respect!

Realizing that it could not deal with dioxin contamination from incinerator ash, the Philippines, under the Clean Air Act, banned the use of incinerators. Now it will be made the dumping ground for such deadly residue. The Ecological Waste Management Act (Republic Act No. 9003) prohibits dumps. The JPEPA will make the whole country a dump. We are still struggling with our own waste problem, but Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo now wants our country to take on a bigger and more dangerous waste problem. Why?

The environment is the life-source of a large majority of our people. It must be protected for their survival. The way to deal with the mass poverty in the country is not to give doles but to protect the people’s sources of livelihood and teach them how to maximize earnings from these. “Don’t give fish. Give fishing rods and teach them how to fish,” so goes the old saying. But what if all the fish are gone -- thanks to environmental abuse?

Richard Steiner, an eminent conservation specialist at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks observed: “With world attention focused almost exclusively on terrorism, another, even more serious security threat deepens -- the global environmental/humanitarian crisis. Humanity is quietly destroying the biosphere in which we live, ourselves and our future along with it.” This, not terrorism, he said, is “the real clear and present danger.” Indeed, what would happen if we lose our food and water security?

To sacrifice the environment for economic development, which is dependent on the former, is self-destructive. You cannot build a nation by destroying its environment. Prosperity cannot be achieved in a wasteland.

ESTER V. PEREZ DE TAGLE, founding chair, Concerned Citizens Against Pollution