http://www.corpwatch.org/issues/PID.jsp?articleid=1608
Trading in Disaster
World Trade Center Scrap Lands in India
By Nityanand Jayaraman and Kenny Bruno
Special to CorpWatch
February 6, 2002
RELATED CHART
Indian Citizens Group Protests WTC Scrap
Potential Contaminants in World Trade Center Debris
CHENNAI and NEW YORK -- It might seem like a tangent to the tragedy of the
Sept 11th attacks: the fate of the thousands of tons of steel that formed
the twin towers. As with so many other unwanted materials from the US, more
than 30,000 tons of steel scrap -- possibly contaminated with asbestos,
PCBs, cadmium, mercury and dioxins -- has been exported to India and other
parts of Asia. Though the risks from the scrap are probably not on the
order of the health threats at Ground Zero, the U.S. nevertheless has the
obligation to ensure that toxic contamination from the World Trade Center
is not exported to other nations.
Mysterious Shipments
At least one shipload, onboard a vessel named Brozna, landed in the South
Indian port city of Chennai in early January. The scrap was unloaded, as
any routine consignment would be, by port workers with absolutely no
protection. Two other ships, Shen Quan Hai and Pindos, also reported to be
carrying World Trade Center scrap berthed and offloaded their cargo in
Chennai. But preliminary investigations failed to reveal documentation
linking the cargo to the Trade Center. Reports are vague about another
shipment making its way into Northern India through the Western port city
of Kandla.
Similar shipments have reportedly reached China, where Baosteel Group
purchased 50,000 tons of the potentially toxic scrap. Malaysia and South
Korea are also reported to have received shipments. Eventually, most of the
1.5 millions tons of scrap from the cleanup may end up dirtying Asian ports
and threatening Asian workers.
Few details are known about who purchased the scrap, but an unidentified
Indian trader reportedly bought an undisclosed amount of the World Trade
Center debris, and the 33,000 ton shipment onboard the Brozna was collected
by Chennai-based Sabari Exim Pvt. Ltd. and removed to the company's
facilities outside the city.
Nor are the names of US-based traders who may have exported the shipments
to India known. However, two New Jersey companies were among the bidders
that won the contract for removing more than 60,000 tons of Trade Center
scrap. New Jersey-based Metal Management Northeast, bought 40, 000 tons and
Hugo Neu Schnitzer, based outside Jersey City, bought 25,000 tons.
Schnitzer was reportedly eyeing the Southeast Asian markets, possibly
Malaysia, where prices are higher.
Public Health Concerns From Tribeca to Chennai
In this case, it is hard to accuse the US of double standards because US
safety regulations were trampled in the chaos over Ground Zero. In lower
Manhattan, thousands of rescue workers and residents have been exposed
daily to unknown but significant dangers from air contamination. Hundreds
of New York firefighters are filing to go on permanent disability, while
serious respiratory infections and other chronic health problems afflict
area residents, especially children. A few days after the attacks, even
President Bush stood on the rubble without protective gear, joining the
rest of a city too shocked and too busy to take proper precautions against
the toxic cloud over Manhattan.
The steel scrap imported by India and China may not represent the same
level of health threat as Ground Zero. But given the amount of material
involved, and the short time frame for any decontamination process, it is
indeed possible that the steel is contaminated with toxic materials.
In the months after the bombing reports surfaced about the presence of
toxic contamination at Ground Zero, including poisons such as dioxins,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB), cadmium, mercury, asbestos and lead in the
debris. What remains in question is whether toxic chemicals have attached
themselves to the steel scrap.
There are no safe levels of exposure to cancer-causing substances like
asbestos, PCBs and dioxins, and toxic metals like cadmium, mercury and
lead. Asbestos, PCBs and dioxins may cause harm even in miniscule doses.
Also, like cadmium and mercury, once ingested or inhaled, they resist
degradation or excretion and tend to build up to dangerous levels in the
body over the long run.
Insurance companies like American International Group and Liberty Mutual
have refused coverage to the demolition contractors charged with the
clean-up. The contractors fear that without insurance they will be driven
into bankruptcy by an anticipated flood of lawsuits over asbestos, mercury
and other toxins released into the air by the collapse of the twin towers
and clean up efforts, according to the New York Times.
Not Enough Information
Contamination of steel scrap is a common concern in the scrap industry. As
far as CorpWatch has been able to determine, US authorities have not
studied the levels of contaminants in the Trade Center scrap that was
exported. If they have, the information has not reached Indian authorities
or port workers.
Trade union groups swiftly moved into action when the exports were reported
last month, but were hamstrung by the lack of information. "The Port
Authorities tell us that steel scrap is legal. And unless we find evidence
of contamination, we can't stop the shipment," said S.R. Kulkarni,
secretary of the Mumbai-based All India Port & Dock Workers Union.
Nor has the information been forthcoming in the United States. The New York
Environmental Law and Justice Project recently filed a Freedom of
Information Act request with the USEPA after US public health activists
suspected regulatory officials were downplaying the toxic contamination in
and around Ground Zero.
However, Chennai-based lawyer T. Mohan says there's enough doubt raised
about the safety of the debris to warrant precautionary steps. "There were
talks to declare Ground Zero a Superfund site. That's proof enough for us
to be concerned that this consignment may be contaminated," he noted.
Who's Responsible?
Under the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous
Waste, it falls to the Indian Government to prevent the import of wastes if
they are found hazardous. That's because the US refuses to sign the Basel
Convention and is therefore not bound by the treaty. This includes an
amendment know as the Basel Ban prohibiting developed countries from
exporting hazardous material to industrializing nations like India. But
Mohan believes that morally, "the burden of proving [the waste] is not
hazardous rests with the US exporters and US government."
Despite a Indian Supreme Court order prohibiting the imports of hazardous
waste into India, US shipments top the list of hazardous waste exports to
India. Everything from zinc ash, toxic ships-for-scrap and lead-bearing
wastes are routinely sent to unscrupulous importers in India. The Indian
regulatory agencies, notably the port and customs authorities and the
Indian Ministry of Environment and Forests, have maintained their habitual
silence on matters such as this that pertain to human health and environment.
"They seem more intent on passing the buck to each other rather than
dealing with the problem and hauling in the US Government for negligence,"
says attorney Mohan.
Steel reprocessing is a dirty business, especially when the steel contains
plastic, chemical and heavy metal contaminants. In fact, secondary steel
almost always contains some toxic materials. Lower wages and laxer
environmental regulations in Asian countries mean that Asian traders and
reprocessors can offer better prices for the steel scrap than their
European or North American counterparts. That is one of the reasons why
scrap metal is exported to Asia in the first place.
The export of contaminated scrap and hazardous wastes to industrializing
countries fits a long-standing pattern of environmental discrimination by
the United States. An infamous example is the shipload of toxic incinerator
ash from Philadelphia that traveled the oceans for two years before ending
up on a beach in Haiti in 1988.
In a February 4th letter to the US embassy in New Delhi, three major Indian
trade unions, Greenpeace and People's Union for Civil Liberties blasted the
US Government for its "continued inaction" in stemming the export of wastes
and scrap to industrializing countries. They called it "a consistent
pattern in keeping with USA's tacit, if not active, support for toxic trade."
"We're totally opposed to the US and other rich countries using India as a
dumping ground for all kinds of wastes and rejects. Such dumping of steel
scrap is adversely affecting the major steel plants in our country, apart
from causing environment and health problems," says P.K. Ganguly, the New
Delhi-based Secretary of Centre of Indian Trade Unions.
The way out of the current bind over the World Trade Center scrap is
simple, say environmentalists. United States authorities should provide
evidence that the scrap lying in India is free of poisonous contaminants.
If the it is found to be contaminated, then immediate steps should be taken
to return the consignment to the US.
If, on the other hand, the shipment is found clean, there may be no
immediate threat of exposure to toxic chemicals. Even if the scrap turns
out not to be dangerous, the question remains: who profits --and who
suffers -- from shipping valuable steel scrap to be recycled half-way
across the globe in India before it returns to the US in its new
incarnation as soup cans or luxury cars?
Nityanand Jayaraman is an independent, investigative reporter based in India.
Kenny Bruno coordinates CorpWatch's Corporate-Free UN Campaign.
CorpWatch
PO Box 29344
San Francisco, CA 94129 USA
Tel: 415-561-6568 Fax: 415-561-6493
URL: http://www.corpwatch.org
Email: corpwatch@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
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