Julio Godoy
PARIS, Dec 24 2006 (IPS) – Fears have arisen over a decision to burn toxic waste brought over from the C- te d Ivoire at a French incinerator.
The toxic waste, some 7,000 tonnes of oil and chemical mixed with soil and gravel, was shipped last month from Abidjan, the economic capital of the C- te d Ivoire, to the French Atlantic port Le Havre. It was then transported by rail to the incinerator site in Salaise-sur-Sanne, some 50 km from Lyon in the south of France, where it is due to be burnt in the coming months.
Neighbours and some local environmental groups have approved the move, but others are raising questions over the efficacy of the incinerators at Salaise-sur-Sanne.
We know nothing about the toxicity of this waste, and wonder why it should be burnt instead of being stocked, Alain Chabrolle, spokesperson for the Federation for the Protection of Nature (FRAPNA, after its French name), told IPS.
Chabrolle said the deal between the French and the Ivorian governments has been carried out in total opacity, without informing the public. The company managing the local incinerator site was simply chosen by the government in Abidjan, without even a tender.
Chabrolle said incinerators were found recently to emit dioxins beyond limits imposed by health and environmental norms. Dioxin is the popular name for a family of toxic compounds. Major sources of dioxins are coal-fired utilities, metal smelting, diesel trucks, land application of sewage sludge, burning treated wood, and trash burn barrels.
Dioxins are also present in cigarette smoke, and numerous chlorine pesticides.
High exposure to dioxins can provoke a number of diseases, from a persistent form of acne to cancer and thyroid disorders. It can also cause birth defects.
Dioxin became a byname for ecological poisoning after the disaster in the Northern Italian city Seveso. In July 1976, storage vessels at a chemical plant near Seveso broke, releasing several kilograms of toxic waste into the atmosphere, leading to the death of tens of thousands of farm and domestic animals.
About 25 square kilometres of land and vegetation was affected. More than 600 people had to be evacuated from their homes, and about 2,000 were treated for dioxin poisoning.
Jean-Luc Pérouze, spokesperson for the environmental organisation Vivre Ici (Living Hsere) in Salaise-sur-Sanne, says the deficiencies of the site and the nature of the toxic waste to be burnt mean the need for an epidemiological study in the village, and a systematic analysis of the soil in the region. We want to know whether we can eat the vegetables, the eggs, the animals we breed here without thinking twice about the health risks we could be facing by doing so, he told IPS.
The waste to be burnt here was initially shipped from Amsterdam to Abidjan in August by the Dutch-based oil trading firm Trafigura Beheer BV. In Abidjan, the waste led to the death of at least ten people, and a poisoning of some 10,000, and contaminated agricultural products at sites around a lagoon.
Salaise-sur-Sanne is a small village in the densely populated valley of the river Rhone, where most of the French chemical industry is concentrated. Before World War I, the French military industry produced chemical weapons such as mustard gas in Salaise-sur-Sanne.
Concerns over incineration of waste have risen after studies by the Institute of Health Surveillance (InVS, after its French name) found that the risk of cancer increases among populations living near incinerators.
There is a significant relation between the growth of the risk of some types of cancer and the place of residence near incinerators, an InVS study says.
The study found that among a population of 2.5 million people living near incinerators, some 136,000 developed different types of cancers. The study established that the risk of cancer of the liver increases by almost 10 percent.
The InVS study also established that women face a higher risk of developing breast cancer of up to seven percent. France has 128 incinerators, the largest number of such facilities in Europe, and uses them to burn household waste and industrial junk.
The reports led health and environmental activists to demand a moratorium on the incineration of waste. Sébastien Lapeyre, spokesperson for the Independent National Information Centre on the Incineration of Waste called the findings by the InVS terrifying .
Industry cannot continue lying about the deadly consequences of incinerating toxic waste on human health, Lapeyre told IPS. It is about time to stop using this archaic, dangerous technology.
Opposition to incinerating waste has been growing in recent years, says Elvire Van Stael, an anthropologist based at Lyon.
In France, the number of people professing nimbyism in ecological matters is growing by the day, Van Stael told IPS. Nimbyism is the acronym of Not in my backyard . This is particularly true for questions related to incinerators.