Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-sally.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!seismo!ut-sally!riddle From: riddle@ut-sally.UUCP (Prentiss Riddle) Newsgroups: net.politics Subject: Re: Tainted Grain: Where will it end up?? Message-ID: <942@ut-sally.UUCP> Date: Fri, 10-Feb-84 18:04:04 EST Article-I.D.: ut-sally.942 Posted: Fri Feb 10 18:04:04 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 11-Feb-84 23:28:00 EST References: <276@pyuxss.UUCP> <6862@watmath.UUCP> Organization: U. of Tx. at Houston-in-the-Hills Lines: 45 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!riddle