Category: News on Related Issues

David Mardiste, Reuters, October 6, 2006 TALLINN, Oct 6 (Reuters) – A delegation from the Ivory Coast arrived in Estonia on Friday as part of the investigation into the deadly discharge of toxic waste in West Africa. The Panamanian-registered Probo Koala was seized on Sept. 27 in the Estonian port of Paldiski on suspicions it…

Deutsche Presse-Agentur, October 7, 2006 Tallinn – Estonian prosecutors have evidence that an oil tanker implicated in a major toxic-waste scandal in Ivory Coast has been refining oil illegally at sea, a newspaper said on Saturday. Analyses of waste water from the tanker Probo Koala show that the so-called ‘slops’ contain levels of toxins which…

STEVE HARTSOE, ASSOCIATED PRESS, OCTOBER 6, 2006 Apex, North Carolina website As a timely rain storm helped scrub the air, firefighters cautiously tackled a chemical fire Friday at a hazardous waste plant where a thundering series of explosions filled the overnight sky with fireballs and a spooky yellow haze. Mayor Keith Weatherly said just after…

SouthernStudies.Org, October 6, 2006 The firm that owns the North Carolina plant where a chemical fire has been burning out of control since Thursday evening was fined earlier this year by state environmental officials for unsafe practices. More than 30 local residents and emergency responders have been treated at area hospitals for respiratory distress and…

Associated Press, October 6, 2006 LOWELL, Ind. – A family evacuated their home near a closed landfill this week after finding a chemical seeped into their well, but town officials say residents are at low risk for contamination. A man, his wife and a 9-month-old daughter left their home in front of the Indiana 2…

Josh Cable, Occupational Hazards News, October 6, 2006 A series of blasts and fire at a hazardous materials plant in Apex, N.C., created a pungent chemical cloud and prompted a state of emergency declaration and the evacuation of an estimated 17,000 residents in the Raleigh suburb. The blasts occurred Thursday night at a hazardous waste…

Darryl D’Monte Oceans around the world have been indiscriminately used as dumping grounds for every conceivable kind of waste — from sewage to garbage to toxic chemicals. It took underwater explorers like Jacques Cousteau to remind us that these wastes do not necessarily get broken down even years after their disposal; they lie at the…

Press Release – UNEP, October 4, 2006 Photo: Rolf Hicker, Hicker Nature Photography The Hague, 4 October 2006 – A rising tide of sewage is threatening the health and wealth of far too many of the world’s seas and oceans, a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) says. In many developing countries…

Bill Berry, Capital Times, Wisconsin, October 3, 2006 STEVENS POINT – My how times have changed. When the state of Wisconsin established landmark ground water quality legislation in the mid-1980s, the wisdom of people like Dr. Henry Anderson was called upon to help make difficult and balanced decisions. Anderson is chief medical officer of the…

RENATA STEPANOV, EL MERCURIO, LA NACIÓN, OCTOBER 3, 2006 Pollution coming from Celco’s new plant in Nueva Aldea has caused many complaints. Chile’s largest cellulose production company, Celco, is facing criticism about smells emanating from its new US$1.4 billion plant in Nueva Aldea (Region X). This latest woe comes after the company’s much publicized stand-off…