UK class action starts over toxic waste dumped in Africa

newstyle · (#1 (**permalink**))

Lawyers will today begin preparing the ground for one of the largest class actions heard in the UK over 400 tonnes of allegedly highly toxic waste dumped in the Ivory Coast from a cargo ship chartered by a London-based company.The legal team will start taking statements from thousands of witnesses. At least 10 people died and more than 40,000 sought medical advice after suffering from sickness and nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting, breathlessness, headaches, skin damage, and swollen stomachs. Hospitals, health centres and the Red Cross were overwhelmed after noxious fumes drifted over the city. Amid angry protests and panic, the government temporarily collapsed.
According to Leigh Day, the British law firm which arrived yesterday in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic capital, up to 5,000 people may sue those to blame.
Waste from the oil tanker Probo Koala was dumped on rubbish tips, poured down drains and left at roadsides, in abattoirs and in lagoons, claimed Ivory Coast and the UN Environment Programme. Water supplies were contaminated and fisheries and schools closed. Half the 18 dumping sites have still not been decontaminated.
The waste is now being taken to France for disposal but yesterday the UN said Ivory Coast was unable to pay and called on rich countries to help fund the estimated $30m (£15m) clean-up bill.
"One of the world's poorest countries is having to pay for the recovery, shipment and decontamination of toxic waste originally produced thousands of miles away in the industrialised world," said Unep spokesman Nick Nuttall in Nairobi, Kenya. "The Ivorian government is being forced to choose between paying hospital bills and the costs of decontamination."
The Probo Koala, chartered by the London-based arm of the shipping giant Trafigura, docked at Amsterdam on July 2 on its way to Estonia having crossed the Atlantic via Gibraltar. Trafigura agreed with Amsterdam Port Services, a specialist firm, that APS would remove the contents of its ship's slop tank for £17,000. APS claims it was told that the waste was conventional and began to unload.
According to APS, the smells were so pungent and unusual that the Dutch stopped the operation and asked for more money to treat the waste. After a dispute, it is alleged Trafigura ordered the material to be pumped back onto the vessel which then set off for Abidjan, via the Canaries, Togo, and Nigeria, arriving on August 19.
A local company, Tommy, was employed to remove the waste. But sources in Abidjan claim they had no experience of toxic waste disposal. The waste was put into at least 12 tanker trucks. It is thought the drivers then took it to rubbish tips, only to be stopped by residents concerned about the smell. The drivers allegedly then dumped the waste around the city.
Allegations that the waste had high levels of caustic soda, as well as a sulphur compound and hydrogen sulphide, have been strongly denied by Trafigura.
In a statement, the company says: "The Probo Koala offloaded 528 cubic metres of 'chemical slops' - spent caustic soda, gasoline residues and water. The slops were the result of normal maritime gasoline trade operations and did not contain active hydrogen sulphide ...
"Hydrogen sulphide would have caused immediate serious illness to the ship's crew and the workers at the petroleum berth where the slops were offloaded. There were no such illnesses. What happened to the slops after they were offloaded from the ship, and the circumstances of the deaths and injuries which have been linked with them, are matters for the Ivorian investigations."
Martyn Day, of Leigh Day, said: "Although the events took place thousands of miles away it is right that this British company is made to account for its actions by the British courts."
Trafigura has sanctioned an independent inquiry, chaired by the former Scottish minister Lord Fraser of Carmyllie.

http://environment.guardian.co.uk/wa...985026,00.html

Tahliba · (#2 (**permalink**))

This kind of thing is happening all over Africa... Where is our outrage?

Agu Bu Oji · (#3 (**permalink**))

^ Exactly.

Now they're all scared of global warming and talking *ish about cutting down on carbon emissions in europe when they dump all their waste in other countries. Sometimes think this global warming is them getting their dues. Apparentlytheres a heat wave in the US, gonna be a HOTT summeragain this year enough to shook them into installing air con on the underground so the wage slaves can get around.

Karma Karma Karma

Tahliba · (#4 (**permalink**))

Apedemak wrote:

Quote:

^ Exactly.

Now they're all scared of global warming and talking *ish about cutting down on carbon emissions in europe when they dump all their waste in other countries. Sometimes think this global warming is them getting their dues. Apparentlytheres a heat wave in the US, gonna be a HOTT summeragain this year enough to shook them into installing air con on the underground so the wage slaves can get around.

Karma Karma Karma

Quote:

I guess sticking your tongue out and shouting, "serves you right" is about as outraged as we can get right now.

Tahliba · (#5 (**permalink**))

"All countries will be affected. The most vulnerable - the poorest countries and populations - will suffer earliest and most, even though they have contributed least to the causes of climate change." - Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change

Publication of the Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change
30 October 2006
http://www.sternreview.org.uk

Brief Excerpts From Chapter 3:
The Impacts of Climate Change on Growth and Dewelopment
Climate change threatens the basic elements of life for people around the world access to water, food, health, and use of land and the environment. On current trends, average global temperatures could rise by 2 - 3 C within the next fifty years or so,1 leading to many severe impacts, often mediated by water, including more frequent droughts and floods (Table 3.1).
... Declining crop yields, especially in Africa, are likely to leave hundreds of millions without the ability to produce or purchase sufficient food - particularly if the carbon fertilisation effect is weaker than previously thought, as some recent studies suggest. At mid to high latitudes, crop yields may increase for moderate temperature rises (2 3 C), but then decline with greater amounts of warming.
... Climate change will increase worldwide deaths from malnutrition and heat stress. Vector-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue fever could become more widespread if effective control measures are not in place. In higher latitudes, cold-related deaths will decrease.
...
Declining crop yields are likely to leave hundreds of millions without the ability to produce or purchase sufficient food, particularly in the poorest parts of the world. Around 800 million people are currently at risk of hunger (~ 12% of world's population), and malnutrition causes around 4 million deaths annually, almost half in Africa. According to one study, temperature rises of 2 to 3 C will increase the people at risk of hunger, potentially by 30 - 200 million (if the carbon fertilisation effect is small) (Figure 3.6).43 Once temperatures increase by 3 C, 250 - 550 million additional people may be at risk over half in Africa and Western Asia, where (1) the declines in yield are greatest, (2) dependence on agriculture highest, and (3) purchasing power most limited. If crop responses to carbon dioxide are stronger, the effects of warming on risk of hunger will be considerably smaller. But at even higher temperatures, the impacts are likely to be damaging regardless of the carbon fertilisation effect, as large parts of the world become too hot or too dry for agricultural production, such as parts of Africa and even Western Australia.
...
The distribution and abundance of disease vectors are closely linked to temperature and rainfall patterns, and will therefore be very sensitive to changes in regional climate in a warmer world. Changes to mosquito distributions and abundance will have profound impacts on malaria prevalence in affected areas. This will be particularly significant in Africa, where 450 million people are exposed to malaria today, of whom around 1 million die each year. According to one study, a 2 C rise in temperature may lead to 40 - 60 million more people exposed to malaria in Africa (9- 14% increase on present-day), increasing to 70- 80 million (16-19%) at higher temperatures, assuming no change to malaria control efforts. Much of the increase will occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, including East Africa. Some studies suggest that malaria will decrease in parts of West Africa, e.g. taking 25 50 million people out of an exposed region, because of reductions in rainfall. Changes in future exposure depend on the success of national and international malaria programmes. Such adaptations are not taken into account in the estimates presented, but the effectiveness of such programmes remains variable.

Sourced from Africa focus http://www.africafocus.org/