| The Devil’s Fart
Edited by Simon McRae of Greenpeace
Melbourne and Adrian Hill of The LEAD Group, based on "Lead Overload: Lead battery
waste trade and recycling in the Philippines" by Greenpeace Australia.
In a small village in the Philippines a few
kilometres north of Manila, residents clasp scarves to their faces and gag and choke for
breath. In May 1996, locals from the village Barrio Patubig were found to have blood
levels contaminated with enough lead to trigger toxicological damage. These people are
victims of a shameful international toxic trade - and investigations show they may be
choking on Australian poison.
What’s Going Where
In 1995 Australia sent 6,185 tons of used lead acid
batteries to the Philippines, which made it the third-biggest toxic trader in scrap lead
batteries to that country. Figures compiled by Greenpeace show that since 1991 at least
76,000 tons of lead acid batteries have been imported to the Philippines. In the last 6
months of 1996 Australia exported over 1.2 million scrap batteries to the Philippines.
Lead is one of the most toxic of all environmental
contaminants, with infants and pre-school children at particular risk. Exposure to lead
can cause poisoning, brain damage and even death.
In October 1996 Greenpeace and the University of the
Philippines surveyed 35 children living near lead disposal facilities. Blood lead levels
were up to 3 times the Australian standard of 10 µg/dL. Of the 10 preschoolers, almost
half were over 15 µg/dL.
One [adult] worker who was employed for three months
[on wages of less than $4 per day] was hospitalised for five months and had to pay his own
medical expenses. Workers at most recycling plants in the Philippines have very little
protection from lead contamination.
Residents of Patubig liken the toxic fumes from the
plant to the "devil’s fart", and watch the Marilao River turn black from
its discharges. Samples collected by Greenpeace around the plant show severe lead
contamination of soil, river sediment and vegetation. Greenpeace sampling of effluent from
the plant found lead levels 1,900 times Australian allowable standards. Lead is the
biggest waste product of scrap batteries, but plants can also discharge highly toxic
arsenic, mercury, and sulphuric acid.
"Hazardous waste recycling in developing
countries can be characterised as either sham or dirty recycling. The facilities often
pollute far more than a final disposal facility would," says the Greenpeace report
Lead Overload.
The situation is no better in India. Australia is
the second largest exporter of highly toxic zinc and lead ash. Investigations show that
over the past two years Australia has exported more than 9,000 tons of toxic waste to
India. Only the US sent more.
What Greenpeace is Doing
Greenpeace campaigners Von Hernandez from the
Philippines and Ravi Agawal from India toured Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, spoke at
seminars and inspected an Australian lead acid battery recycling plant in Sydney, jointly
run by Pasminco and Simmsmetal. They met with government ministers and senior bureaucrats
to put the case from the non-OECD viewpoint on harmful toxic trade. Although Australia is
a signatory to the Basel Convention [which bans hazardous waste exports to developing
countries for disposal], the law it passed to ratify the treaty was seriously deficient.
In September 1995 the parties to the Basel Convention agreed to the Basel Ban amendment
which bans waste for recovery operations in developing countries by 31st December 1997.
Thanks to pressure from Greenpeace and other Organisations the government has since been
forced to amend its initial bill. To meet its international obligations to the Basel
Convention the amendments which came into effect on December 12th 1996 now require waste
traders to get permits from the Federal environment Minister to export hazardous waste
including lead, with fines of up to $1 million for false reporting.
What can I do?
Write to the Federal Environment Minister,
c/- Parliament House, Canberra, ACT 2600. Demand that the Australian
government implements the Basel Ban on sending waste for recycling and recovery in poor
developing countries NOW. Do not wait until 1998.
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