INDEX PCB Digest 01/30/2002
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1) The Toxic Waste
Incineration.....It's a question of Risk
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1) The Toxic Waste Incineration.....It's a question of Risk
There is a toxic waste incinerator proposed for
Kirkland Lake that will burn mainly toxic waste from the US and
Mexico. The company is offering 35 jobs in operations and 40-50 jobs
in trucking. Four people that live near the other incinerator that
this company owns say that they were promised the same but the
got 17-20 part time jobs that paid $10-12 for the production
work. American drivers do all the trucking jobs except one.
Workers handling PCBs are among the first injured by
routine and off normal exposure to these dangerous chemicals.
Many have suffered serious, irreversible life-long debilitating
injuries that are often life threatening. Too often workers are
not adequately protected from fugitive emissions in the
facilities during handling the toxic waste and develop high level of
PCBs in their blood. Too often, employees are then dismissed
from employment before long-term impacts can trigger long-term
disability income. After a very short period of employment the family
is left with a disabled breadwinner and no family support.
Workers exposed to PCBs and dioxin may pass the harmful effects onto
their children through contaminated sperm and their children
may be more prone to certain birth defects associated with this type
of chemical exposure.
From the perspective of the community at large, there
are some very high levels of risks as well. Incinerators produce
and dispense from their stacks Mercury, Lead & Cadmium,
Antimony, Arsenic, Beryllium, Chromium, furans and dioxins the
most toxic substances known to man. The Americans have
discovered after 25 years of burning toxic waste, that people
living downstream have statistically significant increases in
miscarriages, birth defects, breast cancer, testicular cancer and
immune related diseases. As a result of the impacts felt by
downstream communities, the US EPA (Environmental Protection Agency)
in a 1994 draft reassessment of dioxins, proposed a new limit
of 0.006 pg TEQ/kg/cl. This would leave Canada's current
standard 1667 times higher than the US standard. Changes to the
emission standards have effectively halted the further licensing
of toxic waste incineration in the US.
The halting of licensing and the closing of over 200
incinerators in the US have created a market for the disposal of
toxic waste using safer non dioxin forming alternatives.
Heading the list is a Canadian design (Ecologic) that has been used
world wide and in Australia to clean up the contaminated soil
in preparation for the Olympics. These safer alternatives that do not
create dioxin are more expensive to operate. Cheap and dirty
incineration, however, is being promoted by some companies seeking to
take advantage of the market by reintroducing incineration into
countries with outdated standards such as Canada and other third
world countries. Canada is scheduled to update its standards in
2004. A Canadian company is attempting to get incinerators
licensed before the standards are updated so that it can be
grandfathered and operate under the old standards. This will allow
it to keep the safer but more expensive alternative technology
off the market by importing waste from across North America and
burning these toxic wastes in Northern Ontario and Northern Quebec.
"Toxic waste flows to the jurisdiction with the lowest
standards," says Dr. Paul Connett, an American professor of
chemistry and opponent to incineration who spoke recently in
Kirkland Lake.
"Incinerators convert company environmental
liabilities to community health and environmental impacts by emitting
contaminants to the community environment," says Dr. Neil
Carman, a former EPA incinerator enforcement inspector. These
contaminants spread over a large area (3800 sq kilometers at
Swan Hill) at a very low level. Fish, cows and wildlife then
re-concentrate these toxins up to 25 million times and these
low level contaminants become high levels in our food. This is a
direct threat to the farm, hunting and first nation communities
who could have their food source contaminated or could lose market
share by real or perceived threats of contamination.
These contaminants come back to us through the food
system and then proceed to attack the reproduction system and in
particular, the developing fetus and growing children who have the
cell development in their nervous system disrupted. This
results in retarded growth, hyperactivity and reproductive system
cancers, leukemia as well as reproductive disorders,
malfunction of the nervous system, diabetes, suppression of the
immune system, disruption of the endocrine system (thymus,
thyroid, ovaries, testes, etc.), and reproductive/developmental disorders.
Risks are part of life, but high levels of risk with
no or little payback are not only foolish but irresponsible because
it puts at risk the most susceptible and defenseless people of
our community, our children and the unborn, not only for this
generation but for generations to come. People who only see
this as an economic issue are missing the real picture and the real costs.
Ambrose Raftis
705 544 7722
Member of Public Concern Temiskaming
with technical support from Dr. Neil Carman, Austin, Texas
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PCB Digest
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