Activists Hail Recall of Toxic USA Mercury Shipment to India
Congress to Consider Storage and Sales/Export Ban

29 January 2001

An international coalition of citizen, environmental and labor organizations declared an initial victory in their effort to prevent a 118 ton stockpile of mercury from the defunct HoltraChem chlorine manufacturing plant in Maine from being exported to India. They also claimed preliminary success in the larger struggle to phase out mercury use and trade worldwide when US Congressman Tom Allen (D-ME) announced that he would introduce legislation to phase out certain uses of mercury and provide for waste mercury to be stored and retired rather than exported to developing countries.

"We applaud Congressman Allen's leadership role on this issue. There is an emerging global consensus that all uses of mercury must be phased out as soon as possible," said Michael Bender, executive director of the Mercury Policy Project. "It is impossible to manage and use it safely anywhere in the world but least of all in developing countries lacking in regulatory infrastructure and resources to safeguard the public and the environment."

The owner of the waste, Don Goldsmith of D. F. Goldsmith Inc. decided to recall the first 20 ton consignment of the material already on its way to India after protests began in India by environmentalists and Indian dockworkers claimed they would refuse to unload it. Likewise the Indian goverment expressed grave doubts about it. The Goldsmith decision was no doubt influenced by the fact that the States of New York and Maine declared the material a hazardous waste, which would have made its entry into India possibly illegal under the Indian hazardous waste import ban and under the Basel Convention -- an international accord designed to minimize trade in hazardous waste. "

The protest and rejection of this shipment has made the Indian Government seriously acknowledge the extreme hazards of mercury," said Madhumita Dutta of Toxics Link India and the Basel Action Network (BAN) a global toxic trade watchdog net. "We applaud their help in turning this shipment around. Now we must adopt trade and consumptions strategies which phase out all mercury use for good."

U.S. based activists who initially raised the global alarm have been protesting the export plans of broker D.F. Goldsmith for several months, and have urged the U.S. to retire its mercury problems rather than allowing the spread of toxic mercury around the word, particularly to developing countries that lack the resources and regulations to manage it safely. "

The people of India were absolutely justified in rejecting this toxic shipment," said Michael Belliveau, toxics project director for Natural Resources Council of Maine. "The mercury from the Holtrachem plant has already despoiled enough of our environment in Maine. We cannot let this same toxic nightmare cause even more grief abroad." The mercury discharged by he HoltraChem plant has resulted in the highest levels of mercury-contaminated sediment possibly ever recorded in the world.

The coalition, which includes Greenpeace, Toxics Link of New Delhi, Srishti in New Delhi, All India Port & Dockworkers' Federation, Basel Action Network, Mercury Policy Project, the Natural Resources Council of Maine, Maine Peoples Alliance, Peace and Justice Center of Eastern Maine, the Native Forest Network and the Maine Toxics Action Center, are calling for the U.S. government to forever lock-up retired commercial mercury along with the Defense Department Mercury Stockpiles which already contain about 10 million pounds.

Their hopes were raised dramatically last Thursday when US Congressman Tom Allen, Democrat of Maine, announced that he would introduce legislation directing the Department of Defense to temporarily accept waste mercury, like that left after the closure of the Maine HoltraChem plant. The bill also would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to develop and implement a program for long term storage to prevent use and trade of mercury.

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Michael Bender, MPP, 802/223-9000
Mike Belliveau, NRCM, 207/827/6331
Jim Puckett, BAN, 206-720-6426,
Ravi Agarwal, Srishti +91 11 3328006
Madhumita Dutta, Toxics Link in New Delhi, +91 11 4320711, 4328006
John Dieffenbacher-Krall, 207/990-0672

For press release of Tom Allen, other news stories and more information visit the website of the Basel Action Network: http://www.ban.org

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