sebb@pyuxss.UUCP (S Badian) (02/10/84)
Someone I know just brought up something interesting. Has any one wondered what will happen to all the recalled grain pro- ducts that have high levels of Ewhatever(that cancer causing thing)? Someone said that the companies won't dump in the ocean. They'll send it overseas. What a lovely thought. How does the net reading audience feel about this? Does it sound like something that is likely to occur? Sharon Badian
saquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (02/10/84)
Dumping of undesirable products from 1st world countries into 3rd world countries is a very common occurence and very serious problem. Those products are usually given to people who have no way of knowing what it is they are being given (labels are often in foreign languages or simply removed) , and who usually wouldn't have any other choice but to take them even if they knew what they were. "The new internationalist" had a very good issue on dumping a few months ago. I believe it was the December Issue, but I am not too sure. I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in this topic. Sophie Quigley watmath!saquigley
mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly) (02/10/84)
Since other products which were banned in the U.S. and Europe for health and safety reasons have found their way into the Third World, I don't see why the tainted grain won't. Capitalists will be capitalists, you know. The monthly Mother Jones has covered this well over the past several years, first documenting the dumping of banned contraceptives overseas. Sorry, I don't have specific references right here, but will look them up if anyone wants them. Mail to me. Mike Kelly ..!ihnp4!tty3b!mjk
riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) (02/11/84)
The practice of dumping hazardous products abroad is not restricted to
developed countries shipping tainted materials to third world
countries. It also happens among the developed countries themselves.
For instance, many major chemical companies in Europe go so far as to
select sites for their plants on the basis of their easy access to
dumping sites across the border. (I visited one such town: Berghausen
in southern Germany, on the Austrian border, a one-company town whose
sole industry is Bavaria's largest producer of fertilizers and
pesticides.) The dumping may take place only a few kilometers away
from the origin of the hazardous materials, but the artificial barrier
of a national boundary makes both citizen and governmental
intereference that much less likely. (Although I don't know offhand of
any specific cases of it, I imagine that the same technique is commonly
exploited in North America.)
A rather infamous case of this happened last year when the town of
Seveso in Italy was contaminated with dioxin. In the course of the
clean-up, a considerable number of barrels of highly dangerous soil
disappeared from sight. The chemical company responsible had hired a
private Swiss firm to do the job; the firm refused to say where the
poison had gone except that it had left Italy. Allegations flew back
and forth among various West European governments for some time.
Public sentiment, echoed loudly by the politicians involved, was "I
don't care where the stuff winds up, as long as it isn't here!" The
rumor that seemed to bring the most comfort to many people was that the
East German government had agreed to accept the poison in return for a
healthy fee (and no one bothered to ask the East German citizenry its
opinion, of course). I can't remember where the barrels turned up, but
I do recall that somewhere along the line a number of French officials
had been bribed. All in all it was a quite disgusting and frightening
affair.
As for the sale of contaminated goods abroad, the practice need not be
limited to food. I heard on the radio the other day about an American
furniture company which had accidentally made a number of dinette sets
using scrap metal obtained from an old x-ray machine. The tables and
chairs were sufficiently radioactive that health problems were already
beginning to show up among people who had bought them. The furniture
maker recalled the offending items and announced that they would be
"disposed of" in Mexico. Who wants to bet what the "disposal" method
will be?
--- Prentiss Riddle
--- ("Aprendiz de todo, maestro de nada.")
--- {ihnp4,seismo,ctvax}!ut-sally!riddlesaquigley@watmath.UUCP (Sophie Quigley) (02/13/84)
I think that the cargo of Dioxin ended up in an abandonned warehouse in France, but it was found by the authorities there. I don't know what happened to it afterwards. Sophie Quigley watmath!saquigley