Where do the toxins go?

[Guest guest]

this is an american article but gives you a pretty scary nightmre or

two

http://www.carlaemery.com/News.htm

Where Do the Toxics Go?

I've learned about four places they go. I think you need to be

informed about this.

Into the Road Tar--A road worker told me that it was routine to

mix toxic wastes into road tar for the purpose of disposing of it. In

Maine, I encountered a community which was fighting this policy for

its local area.

Into the Cement--A pretzel company mechanic in Ohio told me that

his plants' toxic wastes (heavy metal powder, etc.) were handled by a

toxic waste specialist. He had toured the facilities of that company.

They told him they trucked the toxic wastes to Oklahoma where they

were mixed with the foundation material which would be distributed to

become cement. A lady told me that she and her husband had moved into

a new home which had bare cement basement and walls. She wanted to

know why she couldn't store food in the basement. She said she put a

bag of flour on the basement floor--and it developed a really weird

smell. She said that vegetables she put in the basement rotted. It

made me wonder if the toxics in the cement might be a factor. I think

that if they're going to put toxics into house cement, people should

at least be forewarned, better yet given a choice whether they want

that kind of cement or not.

In regard to the woman who said her vegetables `rotted' in the

basement: I think I may know what actually happened. In most cases,

the root cellar, or the cellar, has to be vented. My ex-son-in-law

built a `root cellar.' We told him it should be vented, but he was a

know-it-all, so he told everybody it didn't need to be vented.

Consequently, all of his vegetables rotted. Everything was spiled:

potatoes, squash, turnips, etc. Why the bag of flour in the basement

had a weird smell is another question, isn't it? Victor Thayer, Sr.,

Cortland, N.Y.

Into the Fertilizer--Federal guidelines allow industrial

producers of toxic wastes to pay fertilizer producers to take the

stuff off their hands by mixing it in with the fertilizer they sell

to farmers and gardeners. Yes, you read that correctly. I heard about

farmers in Eastern Washington who developed severe health problems

and whose ground became poor for growing crops because of toxics in

Cenex bulk fertilizer which they had no warning was there. I

personally talked to an individual in Eastern Colorado who had run

into the same problem with Cenex fertilizer. In Maine, I heard that

toxics also may turn up in bagged fertilizer in garden stores. The

lady told me it was supposed to be on the label if the fertilizer had

toxics in it. In Missouri, I met a lady who saw an ad for " black

dirt " and ordered two truckloads to be put on her garden. After

delivery, she realized that the " dirt " she had paid for was actually

ground-up municipal garbage, because it was full of tiny bits of

ground-up metal, glass, and plastic. (Obviously, you must now be more

careful than ever about what you allow onto your land.)

Into the " Road Salt " --Drinking beverages out of aluminum cans is

a bad habit that the public schools promote. Making the cans in the

first place consumes much electricity (usually made by coal burning).

Recycling them is a far more polluting industry. The waste from

aluminum can recycling is tons of salt laced with heavy metals that

were in the paint on the cans: lead, zinc, cadmium. Formerly, the

company had trouble finding places to stow some 50 truckloads of this

industrial waste. Not a problem any more. They sell the stuff

as " road salt " to counties and municipalities. It's the

cheapest " road salt " available, so their business is good. The waste

water manager of Grand Rapids, Michigan, told me that, because of

this " road salt, " the storm runoff in the city is now way out of EPA

limits for waste water--and a zillion times, or so, too toxic for

drinking water.

The Seattle Times reported that Northwest Alloys, an ALCOA

subsidiary in Addy, Washington, recycled their smelter's " hazardous

waste " by means of a relationship with another company which " sold it

as a fertilizer and road de-icer. " It was labeled as " CalMag " when

sold as a fertilizer. When sold as a de-icer, it was called " Road

Clear. " OLCOA is said to have saved more than $17 million in toxic

disdisposal costs by this deceitful method of disposal. (This

situation came to light when an Oregon farmer's red clover crop died

after being " fertilized. " Loophole: Toxic Wastes Can Be

Declared " Products " and Toxic Waste Laws No Longer Apply!

The Seattle Times, a major West-coast daily, did a 12-page

special on the subject of toxics turning into " products " such

as " fertilizer " and " road salt. " They titled it " Fear in the Fields. "

(Reprint available from Seattle Times, P.O. Box 70, Seattle, WA 98111-

0070, $1 for p h. Or view the article on

http://www.seattletimes.com.)

Their investigators found this to be a " growing national

practice. " They discovered factories which were required by law to

collect dangerous wastes such as those containing lead, cadmium,

arsenic, dioxins, or low-level radioactive waste can get rid of it

most cheaply by giving it, or even paying " fertilizer " manufacturers

to take the waste. That is legal! The moment the toxic waste is

redefined as a " product " - such as fertilizer or an ingredient in

road tar, or in road salt - it is no longer covered by the toxic

waste laws. The cheapest way for companies to get rid of their toxics

is now to declare them " fertilizer " and spread them on rented or

owned land. There are hundreds (thousands?) of trucks loaded with

toxic wastes now driving through this loophole every day spreading

toxic substances on agricultural land.

I told this to a group in Clare, Michigan. A lady in my audience

said, " I know just what you're talking about. My husband is an

electrician whose company is often called in to do jobs for Dow

Chemical in Midland, Michigan. They have a building there where they

work with stuff so poisonous (I think it's dioxin) that the workers

all wear paper suits and breathe through respirators. There is a big

ceiling fan. If they get a spec of it on their skin, they have to

have blood tests from the plant nurse every week for several weeks.

If a worker gets a spot the size of a quarter on his skin, he will

die. When they get done with the stuff, it is shipped out from the

plant as 'fertilizer.' "

A young man who sometimes does field work for a big dairy company

told me that regulations state that any farm worker who is spreading

fertilizer must work in an air-tight tractor cab.

When I told this to a group of folks in Winlock, Washington, a

man in the audience raised his hand. He told us a nearby chemical

company sends from ten to fifty tanker trucks a day loaded

with " fertilizer " from their plant and spreads the stuff over a

nearby rented field. He said, " The grass looks sick. The cows look

sick. The calf crop this year was awful, but it's legal. "

Number of Cases of Pediatric Cancer Rising--A Minnesota mother

whose first child was born with cancer told me that the rate for

childhood cancers is soaring. (Infants and children are more

vulnerable to toxics in the environment than adults.) She said it

took her three months to get in for her son's checkup (he's doing

well now) at the Minneapolis children's hospital. She asked her

doctor why the office was so busy. Her doctor said, " We can't keep up

with it. We hired three pediatric oncologists last year, and three

more this year. We still can't keep up with the number of new cases. "

" Why are there so many new cases of childhood cancer happening? "

my friend asked her.

" We're looking at the chemicals. They're everywhere, " the doctor

replied.

Spreading lowlevel radioactive wastes (in Gore, Oklahoma, it is

being sprayed as a " liquid fertilizer " over 9,000 acres of grazing

ground), dioxin? (whatever that Dow stuff is), and heavy metals are

certainly adding to those " chemicals everywhere. " The person who

spreads it may be in a sealed cab, but the neighbors downwind have no

such protection. Nor do the people who eat the food thus produced.

Needed Legislation - " How can we know what is in that bag of

fertilizer? " people ask me. At this time, there is no way to know if

anything toxic is in it. The government only requires the labeling of

plant-nutritive ingredients like nitrogen and phosphorus. The toxics

in there don't have to be listed. In terms of labeling, you're safer

with a pack of cigarettes than with a bag of " fertilizer. "

THE GOVERNMENT SHOULD REQUIRE ALL FERTILIZERS TO CARRY WARNING LABELS

IF THEY CONTAIN TOXIC WASTES.

Consumer Self-defense--Get your water tested by a private (not

government) water testing service. If you garden and live in an

agribusiness area, get your soil tested too. Don't move to a place

surrounded by agribusiness fields. Persons exposed to aerial

spraying, and perhaps also toxic fertilizer, have told me that their

health improved dramatically when they moved away from agribusiness

neighbors.

When is a Superfund toxic dump not a Superfund toxic dump?

Answer: After it has been mixed with Denver sewage sludge and spread

over a large wheat field.

The government is pushing farmers in many areas to accept sewage

sludge wastes as fertilizer to spread on their acreage. I was told

that near Winlock there are about a half dozen rural properties where

urban sludge is regularly spread on fields. Some owners accept the

sludge as a business proposition. Real farmers, however, tend to be

worried about what the sludge might contain and often refuse to

accept it on their fields. (In some areas the government is trying to

force them to accept it.) Also, not all sludges are alike. The sludge

from a totally household community might be great stuff. However, the

sludge from an industrial center (or a superfund site) might be cause

for great concern.

The Seattle Times reported that the government plans to " clean

up " the Deer Trail, Colorado superfund site by sending the liquid

waste ( " a brew of industrial solvents, petroleum oils, pesticides and

radioactive material " through sewage " treatment " --at which time it

will be mixed with sewage sludge. It will then be spread over a

50,000-acre wheat farm owned by Denver's Metro sewage agency The

report said the EPA has a plan to use this same method to " clean up "

other Superfund sites.