Posts Tagged "PCB"

MSC Flaminia
Press release # 7
Update August 30, 9:45 am

The complete inventory of hazardous materials on board the MSC Flaminia has been made by an unofficial source. No radioactive material is declared. However, the big surprise is the presence of two PCB waste containers on board outside the damaged area. These PCBs are banned from production and use worldwide. They were undoubtedly intended for disposal in Europe. They came clearly the United States, since MSC Flaminia left Charleston. It is surprising that the United States would expose the marine environment to known high risks by transporting and exporting hazardous waste to Europe. Exportation from the United States to Europe is not illegal as long as done in accordance to the Basel Convention on transborder movements of hazardous waste. But it is illogical.

On Sunday May 6th, a twelve-year-old child trespassed onto the transformer of the Usmeco plant, at Conches-en-Ouche in the French department Eure (Normandy). This former plant for the surface treatment of metals was the subject of bankruptcy eleven years ago. Despite the interventions from the ADEME (Environmental Agency and Energy Control), there are still dangerous materials inside and heavy metals and cyanides contaminated the soil. The site was not supervised and was not protected against intrusions. According to Robin des Bois, there are strong presumptions that the transformer was contaminated with PCB. If this is the case, it would have had to be eliminated at the latest at the end of year 2010. In any event, it is strange that a transformer inside the closed plant eleven years ago had been under voltage. Other transformers, on the property of Umesco could have been fractured in extracting some copper. The ground belongs to a SCI (real estate company) related to the former directors of Usmesco. The site of Usmesco is registered in the BASOL database that is updated by the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development, and Energy. The BASOL database lists the sites and polluted grounds calling for a preventive or curative action of public powers.

A Demolition Derby
The demolition of the TK Bremen on French territory is a spectacular example of the administrative simplification so dear to the government. The dumping of this industrial waste amounting to 2,000 tons is containing asbestos in several forms, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), hydrocarbon traces, lead paint, mercury and tin are not submitted to French and European control’s temporary authorization for a Classified Facility for the Protection of the Environment. The guidelines of the Bale Convention and the International Maritime Organization on the dismantlement of ships are not being respected. Robin des Bois requests that the prefect of Morbihan, the maritime prefecture, and the labor inspectors publish the map of dangerous waste present on the TK Bremen, if it exists.

A Demolition Derby

The demolition of the TK Bremen on French territory is a spectacular example of the administrative simplification so dear to the government. The dumping of this industrial waste amounting to 2,000 tons is containing asbestos in several forms, polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), hydrocarbon traces, lead paint, mercury and tin are not submitted to French and European control’s temporary authorization for a Classified Facility for the Protection of the Environment. The guidelines of the Bale Convention and the International Maritime Organization on the dismantlement of ships are not being respected. Robin des Bois requests that the prefect of Morbihan, the maritime prefecture, and the labor inspectors publish the map of dangerous waste present on the TK Bremen, if it exists.

Wearing their top chef’s hats, Ifremer, the General Department for Food, the Management of Maritime Fishing, and waterlife have made for you, just in time for New Year’s celebrations, a dish of the highest quality. It is recommended that you consume crabs fished from the depths of the Seine’s bay, and no longer adhere to the opinion of the National Agency for the Sanitation of Food, Work, and the Environment (ANSES) from May 13, 2011, and to forget the prefect of Haut-Normandie’s decree from July 29, 2011. According to the former, the crabs were considered not to conform to the regulated standards of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) and dioxin content, and the latter forbid both consumption and marketing.