TL: HAZARDS OF FERTILIZER PRODUCTION USING PHOSPHATES TL: HAZARDS OF FERTILIZER PRODUCTION USING PHOSPHATES [Part of the Albright & Wilson Report] [gpi] SO: Greenbase, Greenpeace International DT: 1991 Keywords: toxics phosphates fertilizers problems reports gpi greenpeace / Industry public relations companies portray the fertilizer industry as necessary to feed the world's people. As that population increases, any criticism of the fertilizer industry is translated into an attempt to make people go hungry. For example, the Kirk-Othmer chemical encyclopedia states: "the food-fertilizer-population linkage is the important underlying basis supporting demand." In reality, the fertilizer industry has been a quick and dirty solution for agriculture, and may be adding to world hunger in the long run. In the short run it has created a food system dependent on the chemical industry. The following discussion has a focus on phosphorus, and its salts: phosphates. The ecological damage cause by other fertilizers, such as nitrates, require their own study. Note that nitrates from fertilizers are a major source of water pollution world-wide, and may also add to global warming. The hazards of producing chemical fertilizers from phosphorus-bearing rock are little known. The problems include: (1) high risk of explosions and fires to both workers and neighbours of fertilizer plants (2) severe environment damage to regions where phosphates are mined (often third world countries) (3) heavy metals in both the fertilizer product, and the factory waste (4) radioactive waste, which is often sold and re-distributed in the community without warning (5) dousing farm land with phosphates, which then leach into water systems, sometimes adding to killer algae blooms. Added to this toll is the tremendous energy consumed by shipping phosphate rock from the third world to a Western country for processing, and then shipping the "product" back. That energy consumption adds to global warming. Yet another hidden problem with industrial fertilizers is that they inhibit the development of organic sources of nutrients. For example, Kirk-Othmer calculates that 50% of fertilizer requirements in the United States could by provided by manure, animal waste and crop residues. The FAO estimates that organic waste could provide 25% of fertilizer needs, but is only used for 10% currently. The push of chemical fertilizers companies tends to replace organic collection processes that have been developed over centuries. The result is a soil and a population dependent upon multinationals for survival. REGIONAL DAMAGE CAUSED BY PHOSPHATE MINING [A] THIRD WORLD PILLAGING: In some parts of Europe, including the UK, some phosphate fertilizers are pulled from the slag from iron smelters. However this source provides only a small part of European phosphate fertilizer production. The richest phosphate mining in the world is in Florida, USA. Europe contains some phosphate deposits, as does Scandinavia but most contain poor commercial content. Since phosphate fertilizers were discover in the mid-1900's, most workable deposits in Europe have been used up. Consequently, colonial Europe began the practice of obtaining phosphates from more exotic sources overseas, from the South Pacific to Africa. One potent source of phosphates is bird manure - "guano" which has soaked into porous rock or coral. By 1910, guano deposits on Christmas Island in the South Pacifc were mined to a depth of 100 feet. Guanno mining is strip-mining: the entire surface layer is removed. This mining has left desolation in many parts of the world. An example is the south pacific island of Nauru. This 8-mile square island was a awarded to Australia and New Zealand as trustees, by the United Nations in 1947, until it's independence in 1968. Large parts of the island are now pot- holed rock. Phosphates, the only source of income for the islanders, is dwindling, and will run out in less than 15 years. Nauru is suing Australia for damages, in the International Court of Justice, citing damage from the phosphate industry. Albright and Wilson Australia was one of the chief beneficiaries of stripping Nauru for phosphates. The company publication "Albright World" (April 1, 1987) cheerfully reports that A & W Australia has an "exciting" future. The A & W pilot laboratory at Yarraville was testing new samples from North Africa, as the Nauru supply is almost exhausted. Albright and Wilson moves on to new sources of phosphates, leaving Nauru to it's own dismal future. European phosphate producers imported phosphate rock from many other third world countries, with similar results. Another source was South Africa during the time of apartheid - mined by blacks working for slave wages. Other African countries have suffered extensive strip mining: Senegal and Togo. Both these countries, along with Nauru, have a high content of the toxic heavy metal cadmium. - Phosphorous and Potassium p18(4) March-April, 1991 FIRST WORLD ECO-DAMAGE The wreckage of phosphate mining is not limitted to the third world. There are other giant pits from Lithuania to the United States. In the U.S., the worst case is the state of Florida, the world's biggest single source of phosphate rock. The phosphate problems of phosphates in Florida are many and complex, coming from both mining and heavy agricultural use. Here are some examples only: * the largest tropical lake in the western hemisphere, Lake Okeechobee is being strangled by algae flourishing on phosphate waste. In 1986 an alge bloom deadly to all other life spread over 100 square miles of the 700 sq. mile lake in central Florida. Lake Okeechobee feeds the famous Everglades, and the water aquifer serving Florida's largest cities: Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and Palm Beach "So much phosphorus is trapped in the bottom muck already, he says, that controlling the flow of new nutrients is "just going to be a drop in the bucket. One concern is that a serious storm that churned the bottom could release the phosphorus and kill the lake." - Christian Science Monitor September 10, 1986 * scientists suspect the same phosphate-laden aquifer is responsible for another algae bloom threatening North America's only coral barrier reef. [See Christian Science Monitor, March 14, 1990] * officials investigating pollutants found in the drinking water of Miami list among the possible sources: "Scores of gypsum heaps from phosphate-mining operations, a potential source of pollution that is not only acidic but radioactive." - The Washington Post, September 28, 1984. The "gypsum" described in this newspaper report is actually phosphogypsum - a toxic waste produced by phosphate plants in the millions of tons - for which no safe storage technology exists. [See "Factory Waste" below]. IS ISN'T DISNEYWORLD : WHAT THEY DON'T TELL YOU ABOUT FLORIDA'S DIRTY PHOSPHATE INDUSTRY : Two parts of Florida, Polk County in Central Florida and Hamilton County in North Florida, produce 80% of America's phosphate, and 25% of all phosphate in the world. Fourteen companies produce at least 30 million tonnes of phosphates per year, all by strip-mining: gouging out the surface of the land. The results have been devastating for Florida and surrounding waters. "It takes 1 1/3 pounds of phosphate to grow a bushel of wheat. Florida produced enough phosphate last year to grow about 46 billion bushels of wheat. Florida citrus growers alone use 60 million pounds of phosphate a year." - Orlando Sentinel (OS) - SUNDAY December 18, 1988 TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND ACRES OF WASTELAND " Almost 200,000 acres of Florida have been strip-mined and thousands of acres more will fall to the draglines. Where there once were wetlands and forests there are now thousand-acre slime pits, 10-story mountains of radioactive waste called gypsum and thousands of acres of radon-leaking land." [as above] "Before 1975, phosphate companies weren't required to reclaim land and, not surprisingly, they didn't. Almost 60,000 acres of land mined before then remains unreclaimed, some of it looking like a motocross track, filled with pits and gullies and mini-mountains of dirt. " [as above] HOMES BUILT ON RADIOACTIVE LAND "Homes built on reclaimed mines contain about 50 percent more radon than nearby homes, according to a study by the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research. At this level, health officials estimate, three people out of 100 would get lung cancer during a 70-year lifespan. "It's like smoking a half pack a day," says Thomas Reese, an environmental attorney and longtime foe of the phosphate industry. About 4,000 homes have been built on reclaimed land in Polk and Hillsborough counties. There are no restrictions on putting people on reclaimed land, no mandatory guidelines for how much or how little radon is allowed in the home." - Orlando Sentinel (OS) - SUNDAY December 18, 1988 MILES OF SLIME PONDS : "Polk County now has 80,000 acres covered with slime ponds, and when the phosphate companies are through mining out the area just after the turn of the century, it will have more than 100,000. More than half the land mined for phosphate is converted into slime ponds. Many of the older ones are under no mandatory reclamation plan." [as above] 500 MILLION TONNES OF RADIOACTIVE PHOSPHO-WASTE " For every pound of phosphate produced for the fertilizer sack, five pounds of gypsum are produced for the waste stack. There are 500 million tons of gypsum stacked on 7,000 acres in Florida, and like the slime and reclaimed land, it is lightly radioactive." [as above] HIGH CANCER DUE TO PHOSPHATE ORE IN GROUNDWATER "Florida counties where groundwater has been contaminated by radium had nearly three times the cases of leukemia that were found in the general population of the state, a new study says.... ...The scientists selected the 27 counties because they contain large deposits of phosphate ore, rich in uranium and the products it produces through radioactive decay - including radium 226 and radon 222. Those two substances can concentrate and contaminate groundwater, said the researchers, who tested 50 private wells to determine their total radium concentrations. They found the incidence of leukemia in counties with high exposure to radium was 11/2 times greater than in low-exposure counties for all types of leukemia, and two times greater for an aggressive, radiation-linked form of the disease called acute myeloid leukemia. - "Leukemia Linked to Radium-Contaminated Groundwater in Florida" BY: BRENDA C. COLEMAN, ASSOCIATED PRESS August 2, 1985 CONCENTRATED RADIOACTIVE WASTE In addition to the hundreds of thousands of tons of low-level radioactive was dumped as phosphogypsum slag, 9 companies in Florida admit they annually dump "a couple of hundred tons" of more concentrated radium waste, cleaned from fertilizer plant pipes and filters. Radioactive machinery from the plants has also been dumped, with no warning to the public, or regulatory authorities. [see: Sun Sentinel (FL) - MONDAY July 22, 1991] DISREGARD FOR DRINKING WATER "TAMPA- A phosphate company, strapped for new land, wants to pile gypsum leftovers on a sprawling ranch that Hillsborough County bought as a source for 50 million gallons of drinking water a day." - SUN SENTINEL (FL) - THURSDAY November 22, 1990 PHOSPHATE RADIOACTIVE WASTE IS ABSORBED INTO FOOD Research done by the Florida Institute of Phosphate Research (FIPR) in 1986 showed that agricultural crops can absorb radioactivity from phosphate waste. A huge area in Florida with water contaminated by the phosphate industry - and Florida is also one of America's "garden states", providing a big percentage of the nation's citrus and vegetables, as well as beef. "Florida phosphate rock contains unusually high levels of uranium and proportionate amounts of its more hazardous decay products such as radium-226, radon-222, lead-210 and polonium-210.... ...In 1986, FIPR commissioned a research team, Post, Buckley, Schuh & Jernigan Inc. (PBS&J), to study the radioactivity in foods grown on a variety of land types, including mined and unmined land. The results showed that the radioactivity concentratioins measured in foods grown on mined phosphate lands were higher than those measured in similar foods grown on unmined land.... Consequently, individuals ingesting foods grown on mined phosphate lands receive higher radiation doses. However, the doses are quite low, and, even the estimated doses for the hypothetical maximum individual, who consumes all study foods from clay lands, would be a small fraction of natural exposure to environmental radioactivity and would not be considered to be a health hazard." - Phosphorous and Potassium p31(2) Jan-Feb, 1991 [Only in Florida could anyone conclude that eating radioactive food is not a health hazard.] FLORIDA'S PHOSPHATE SLAG HEAPS ARE OVERFLOWING The U.S. EPA decided, after several transportation accidents, that the phosphogypsum waste from phosphate plants could not be safely transported. (Previously it had sometimes been sold as fill for highway and other construction). There are an estimated 600 million tonnes of phosphogypsum sitting in dumped heaps in Florida, and the phosphate industry creats another 30 million tonnes of waste every year, with no place to put it. [See: Phosphorous and Potassium p16(2) Nov-Dec,1990] RADIOACTIVE WASTE: EASY DUMPING IN FLORIDA The government agency responsible for radioactive waste in Florida, the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), does not know what is being dumped. "HRS has allowed hundreds of tons of radioactive debris to be buried by phosphate-fertilizer companies in man-made mounds across Central Florida - unaware that another state agency identified many of the sites as groundwater polluters... ... A science adviser to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's radiation control program said he was surprised Florida allows radioactive materials to be buried in leaking phosphate-gypsum mounds, and that it didn't keep better tabs on potentially hazardous materials found in oil. 'It needs to be monitored and controlled because of the potential danger,' Gordon Burley told The Tampa Tribune in a story published Sunday. 'It's not a material that should just be thrown on the trash heap.'" - "FEW RULES GOVERN DISPOSAL OF STATE'S RADIOACTIVE WASTE" Orlando Sentinel (OS) - MONDAY July 29, 1991 SOME LOCATIONS OF OTHER DANGEROUS SLAG HEAPS: RADIOACTIVE IDAHO IDAHO : Pocatello and Soda Springs, Idaho, both hosted phosphorus mills for some 35 years. "EPA's Region 10 office, the state of Idaho, the Idaho Mining Association, the governments of Bannock and Caribou counties and the towns of Pocatello, Chubbuck and Soda Springs aided in the Idaho study, which was conducted from April 1986 through September 1988. EG&G and Battelle's Pacific Northwest Laboratory provided contract technical assistance. The report was released in April 1990 and touched off a storm of controversy. It concluded that one of the most significant risk factors for residents of the towns was exposure to gamma radiation from elemental phosphorus slag, the lava-like rock produced in phosphorus processing. The slag contains uranium and its decay products, which emit gamma rays. In Pocatello, where the slag was used extensively for street paving, the highest risk is due to outdoor exposure. In Soda Springs, where the slag was used in home foundations as well, the greatest risk was determined to be from indoor exposure." - Nuclear Waste News September 13, 1990 [The risk of getting cancer in Soda Springs, Idaho was set at 1 in 700, due to the phosphate mill radiation.] YUGOSLAVIA : A phosphate mill in Zasevje, Yugolsavia [Slovenia] was investigated by the Ivan Kobal et al. Researchers found the phosphate mill was leaking radioactivity into the River Sava. [see: Waste Information Digests April 00, 1990 V.1 NO. 3] VENEZUELA : "Petroquimica de Venezuela SA (Pequiven) mines a Miocene sedimentary phosphorite at a reopened mine near the village of Riecito in Falcon State. The output of the mine is transported to Pequiven's fertilizer complex at Moron, where it is used as a raw material in the production of ammonium phosphate-based NPK fertilizers by the phosphoric acid route. This is the main route by which phosphate fertilizers sold in Venezuela are produced: according to Palmaven's statistics, ammonium phosphates accounted for 93% of fertilizer [P.sub.2.O.sub.5] in 1989." -"Riecito phosphate rock in Venezuelan fertilizer production." (based on papers presented 2nd Fertilizer Latin America Conference) Phosphorous and Potassium p22(6) Jan-Feb, 1991 CANADA : NEWFOUNDLAND " In fact, because of the potential for environmental disaster from Hibernia, this project represents a combination of the worst examples of Smallwood's mega-projects: the Upper Churchill and the Erco phosphorous plant in Placentia Bay, which fouled the air and crippled the fishery with its effluent." - Toronto Star 25 Sep 90 When the Long Harbour plant was operating, sudden fires were common, according to the United Steelworkers of America. The Steelworkers said Erco (an Albright and Wilson subsidiary) was leaving behind 8 to 10 million tonnes of radioactive slag in Newfoundland. [See: CANADA NEWS-WIRE 21 Jul 89] After Albright and Wilson shut down their plant in Long Harbour, Newfoundland, the governments of Newfoundland and Labrador, along with the federal government, had to pay out $205 million in aid for the laid off workers. [See: Canada News-Wire 21 Mar 90 ] QUEBEC : SELLING RADIOACTIVE WASTE FOR $$$ Albright and Wilson Amerique (better known in Quebec as Erco) sold millions of tonnes of radioactive phosphogypsum in Quebec, as fill for highways, and homes. "Paul-Emile Carriere of the Environment Department said the site is a hazard for nearby residents in Varennes, east of Montreal. Carriere said the waste emits five times the radioactivity considered acceptable for human safety." - BUSINESS INFORMATION WIRE 17 Jun 88 The Quebec government ordered Albright and Wilson to stop selling the waste, except for highways use, in 1979, and then to stop selling it at all in 1986. Albright and Wilson offered no cleanup, and expected to resume sales of the hazardous bi- product. " Nothing was done to determine the level of danger, said Gilles Lafleur, who served on a Varennes environment committee that triggered a government investigation of Erco, owned by Tenneco Canada Ltd., in the 1970s." [as above] FAILING TO NOTIFY AUTHORITIES: "But Environment Department official Conrad Anctil admitted at an inquiry hearing in Longueuil, near Montreal, that 150,000 tonnes of slightly radioactive waste produced by Albright and Wilson of Varennes, Que., were not included in the inventory. Albright and Wilson's waste was left out because the company never filed reports required by Quebec's hazardous waste regulations." - CANADIAN PRESS NEWSWIRE 21 Nov 89 ONTARIO A fertilizer plant owned by ICI Canadian subsidiary CIL got permission to dump more than 2 billion litres of contaminated phosphogypsum into the St. Clair River, and the Great Lakes system which provides drinking water for millions. CIL didn't know what else to do with the huge waste pond, on a 40 hectare site, and rainfall threatened to make it flood nearby fields. "The Ontario environment ministry has delayed approval of the plan, which would allow Canadian Industries Ltd. (C-I-L) to drain two giant ponds at its chemical fertilizer plant south of Sarnia. The pond water contains ammonia, phosphates, fluorides and di- nitrotoluene, a suspected cancer-causing chemical." - Toronto Star 13 Jul 87 RISK OF FIRES AND EXPLOSIONS In addition to polluting dust from most fertilizer plants, both workers and the local community are put at risk by the nature of the chemicals used. Nitrogen and ammonia components of fertilizers are often combined with phosphate opertations, to create a "complete" fertilizer. Thus, the following examples of fertilizer accidents includes all types of fertilizer plants. The record for the first half of 1991 alone is shocking: EXAMPLES OF FERTILIZER PLANT EXPLOSIONS: ***ALBRIGHT AND WILSON: "CHARLESTON, S.C., June 17, Reuter - At least seven people were dead and two were missing after an explosion at a phosphate manufacturing plant of Tenneco Inc unit Albright and Wilson Americas Inc, police said." - Reuter June 17, 1991 ==== "Plant Fire Forces Evacuations ASHBURN, Ga. (AP) Fire broke out early Thursday at a chemical plant in Ashburn, forcing evacuation of many of the town's residents. An Ashburn Fire Department spokesman who declined to give his name said the fire at the Tide Products plant, which produces fertilizers, broke out before daylight." - Associated Press, May 12, 1991 ==== " 05/03 Eight killed in Louisiana fertilizer plant blast STERLINGTON, La. (UPI) -- Authorities recovered four more bodies late Thursday from the ruins of a fertilizer plant that blew up the day before, bringing the death toll in the disaster to eight. Shortly after discovering the bodies, officials allowed the residents of Sterlington to return to their homes -- more than 24 hours after they had ordered a complete evacuation of the town of 1,500." - United Press Int. May 3, 1991 === " FERTILIZER EXPLODES SASOVO, RYAZAN REGION APRIL 26 TASS BY TASS CORRESPONDENT ANATOLI KAKOVKIN: AN EXPLOSION THAT SHOOK A SUBURB OF THE TOWN OF SASOVO IN THE RYAZAN REGION WAS THE EXPLOSION OF FERTILIZER." - TASS April 26, 1991. " U4/07 EATONTON, Ga. (UPI) -- A fertilizer plant caught fire Sunday, spewing yellow clouds of toxic fumes that forced the evacuation of some 1,500 people ..." - UPI April 7, 1991 [Gro-Tech fertilizer plant] The fertilizer industry has a long history of such explosions, fires, and deaths. The damage done to the lungs of thousands of people exposed to such chemical fires has never been studied. Some fertilizer plant explosions include gases like ammonia. But the safety problems include phosphates as well, partly due to the low flash point of phosphorus. Elemental phosphorus is highly flammable, bursting into flames in air, at only 34 degrees. It burns with a white flame, and produces dense clouds of pentoxide (for which reason it is used as a smokescreen by the military). Obviously, any substance which burns when contacting air at ordinary temperatures is highly hazardous to store or handle. For example: "A fire occurred at the Portishead storage depot of Albright & Wilson, near Bristol in the UK, on 4 Aug 1990. This resulted in the damage to 167 drums, or 30 tonnes, of white phosphorus." - Manuf. Chem. Vol 61 Issue 9 pp 8 900901 Another phosphate fertilizer explosion occured at Royster Co. in Mulberry, Florida, USA, on July 29, 1985. [See: Fert. Int. Issue 209 (paragraph) pp 6 850815]. DANGEROUS TO TRANSPORT : ALBRIGHT & WILSON RAIL EXPLOSION : US "Thousands flee toxic cloud as chemical car explodes - MIAMISBURG, Ohio (AP) - A railway tank car burned unchecked in the pre-dawn hours today after it exploded during salvage efforts, spewing a toxic cloud that injured at least 92 people and forced thousands from their homes for the second time in two days. "We're saying it will now be out by daylight," said Dave Bush, trainmaster in Dayton for CSX Transportation, the railway on which the tanker derailed Tuesday. At least 80 people were treated at six hospitals last night after the tanker exploded for the second time in two days, sending a poisonous plume over the parts of three cities that had been evacuated Tuesday night, officials said. Twelve people were treated at a Red Cross shelter in Dayton. ..." ..."A car carrying white phosphorus, which is used in making rat poison, detergent and weapons, ruptured and began burning. Pat Madigan, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said the phosphorus was made by Erco of Etobicoke and was en route to Albright Wilson Inc. of Fernald, near Cincinnati. Sam Goodson, plant manager for Albright Wilson, said it was to be converted into phosphoric acid, which is used by the food and beverage industry and in detergents." FERTILIZER FACTORY POLLUTION FACTORY WASTE According to an industry journal, world fertilizer plants produced 150 million tonnes of phosphogypsum in 1987. There is very little use for this generally toxic biproduct. At least 130 million tonnes per year are merely stored in heaps, or pumped into the sea. [Phosphorus Potassium Issue 155pp 25-27 880531] Aside from minor quanties of toxic phosphorus compounds (See Insecticides) - the two major problems with phosphobypsum waste are: 1. the waste is often radioactive, even beyond the levels allowable for uranium miners. 2. it contains tonnes of heavy metals like cadmium and zinc The grave risk of heavy metals and radiation from phosphate plant waste has been severely underestimated by both government agencies and the public. Because the phosphate industry began practically with the industrial age, there have been few environmental assessments of phosphate operations, as there would be if these were new industrial establishments. Regulatory agencies in many countries have turned a blind eye, including letting companies close down older plants with no environment cleanup. RADIOACTIVE WASTE Here is the news story: " MONTREAL (CP) _ A radioactivity specialist with the provincial government says landfill material in a Montreal suburb is as radioactive as dump sites in Ontario deemed by Ottawa to require decontamination." [Canadian Press, June 17, 88] Here is the story behind the news. Albright and Wilson is affiliated with another Tenneco subsidiary: Erco. Like Albright & Wilson, Erco makes chemicals and fertilizers. In the mid-1970's the government investigated Erco (and Tenneco) in Quebec. Scientists tested Erco's phosphate waste, and confirmed it was radioactive. Nevertheless, Erco continued to sell millions of tonnes of the radioactive waste, for use as construction fill, including under a housing suburb at Varennes, east of Montreal, Canada. Like all phosphate manufacturers, Erco was looking for a way to get rid of its hazardous biproduct. Getting money for it was even better. Between 1979 and 1985, the government authorized Erco to sell 500,000 tonnes of its tainted waste for highways work. Then in 1986 all sales were banned. Here's more: "The slag is what's left after phosphorus is extracted from phosphate ore. It contains uranium and other radioactive materials which occur naturally in the ore but are concentrated in the waste by the phosphorus-extraction process. Carriere said the government has asked the company, better known by its former name of Erco, to return the slag to Florida. Erco has refused to get rid of the rocks, which come from a mountainous slag heap about 500 metres from a new housing development. 'They've told us we're not moving it because we can sell it,' Carriere said. Dubbed Erco Mountain by some, the slag heap has been off limits since the late 1970s, when government scientists found radioactive material in the rocks. " - [Canadian Press, June 17, 88] Erco imported phosphate ore from Florida, concentrated it to the point of radioactivity, and then sold the radioactive waste, even as fill around houses. Phosphate slag can emit a odourless, invisible gas called radon. Scientists have found that radon can rise from the ground, or contaminated fill, collecting indoors, especially in basements. When radon is inhaled, a second radioactive breakdown occurs, releasing particles which damage lung tissues. In September 1988, the U.S. EPA issued a warning about radon in homes. The EPA estimated 8 million U.S. homes might have potentially harmful radon levels - from all sources. These sources included natural uranium, uranium tailings, various rock types, and phosphate rock or tailings. [See Washington Post September 13, 1988] HOW RADIOACTIVE IS PHOSPHATE WASTE? The phosphate industry tries very hard to play down the risk of radioactive phosphate waste. But these wastes can contain enough uranium to lead to an atomic bomb or a nuclear power plant. The fertilizer factory at Qaim, Iraq (near the Syrian border) was used by the Iraqi's as a source of what they intended to be weapons grade uranium (by further processing). "The uranium was processed at a plant in Al Qaim, which produced both uranium yellowcake (a building block for enriched uranium) and phosphate fertilizer." - The Washington Post, July 31, 1991 URANIUM RECOVERED FOR NUCLEAR POWER In some cases, there is so much uranium in phosphorus factory waste, that it can be re-sold to the nuclear power companies. The American IMC Fertilizer Group, selt-touted "world's leading private enterprise producer and marketer of phosphate rock and potash", reported the following in press release: "The company also recovers uranium oxide for sale to electric utilities for upgrading as fuel for nuclear power plants." - [PRNewswire, Oct. 18, 1990] OTHER ERCO PHOSPHATE SLAG HEAPS Who else has to fear Erco slag heaps? In a 1986 issue of "Albright World" [01/02/87 pg 6], Albright & Wilson proudly announce they have officially opened a new "slag-processing facility" at Long Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada. The new machinery was to crush waste from the Newfoundland phosphate furnaces into a suitable size for road construction. The new equipment answered the problem of storing the slag on site. It also increased the risk of spreading radioactive waste and heavy metals throughout the roads of Newfoundland. The slag crusher was supposed to be part of an action plan to safeguard the plant's future. By 1991, Albright and Wilson closed the Newfoundland plant, in favour of more modern technology in North (CHECK THIS) Carolina. No cleanup of the site is reported in major Canadian newspapers. The story of environment damage caused by ERCO in Newfoundland has not yet been written. But radioactive slag heaps are not limitted to ERCO. The parent company Albright and Wilson share this dishonour with most other phosphate makers. IN THE UK: According to the Chemical Industry journal, Albright & Wilson were fined 10,000 pounds for 5 radiation related offences occuring at the Portishead phosphorus operation, near Bristol, UK. The journal says radiation levels were below legal limits for workers in the nuclear industry, which says little. But Albright & and Wilson said less. They new the dust was radioactive two years earlier (Dec. 1987) but did not report that fact to the Health & Safety Executive of the UK. [See: Chem. Ind. (London) Issue 15 pp 469 890807 ] The Daily Telegraph reports the following about Albright & Wilson's radation charges: "The company admitted failing to notify the Health and Safety Executive of work with radioactive material; failing to adequately reduce exposure of employees to radiation; failing to designate controlled areas with radioactive contamination; failing to prepare local rules on dealing with the hazard and failing to store the radioactive material correctly. Four companies are being sued by South West Water for alleged breach of contract after Britain's worst poisoning of domestic water supplies near Camelford, Cornwall, last year." - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH 15/7/89 P6 As recently as the end of July 1991, Britons were just being told about the many sources of radioactivity polluting the environment, the workplace, the rivers, - and their bodies. The London Observer reported a leaked document detailing low-level radioactive waste running into the Thames River from 750 sites. Along with nuclear research and medical facilities, phosphorus plants were implicated. "Last year, a government-sponsored study discovered above-average levels of carcinogenic RADIOACTIVE iodine 125 in the thyroid glands of London residents, which were traced back to the Thames.... Yet underground sewage workers wear ordinary wet suits and breathing apparatus, while surface workers often wear no protective clothing at all. `Many of our members were completely unaware there was any risk to them from RADIATION,' said Nupe's London area officer, Peter Pledger. `We suspect that in the short term there is little likelihood the doses will harm the workers, but in the long term they probably will.'" - Observer JUL 28, 91 ---------------- Such radioactive phosphate slag heaps are found all over the world, wherever phosphorus products have been made from contaminated rock. Albright and Wilson, for example, also opened a phosphoric acid plant in Cartegena, Columbia - close to the heart of the cocaine empires of Columbia, South America. In fact, the other chemical users in the Cartegena region are the cocaine laboratories. (CHECK THIS) Look for a toxic slag heap in Columbia as well. The Albright and Wilson subsidiary is called Productora Andina de Acidos y Derivados Limitada (PAAD), although most of the slag will likely be at the PAAD phosphate plant in Bogata, Columbia, - a joint venture with Quimicos Colombianos Limitada (QC). [See Albright World pp 4 880401 ] The Canadian ERCO company set up these phosphoric acid factories in Columbia, presumably to the same high standards as they exercised in Canada. OTHER ALBRIGHT AND WILSON PHOSPHORIC ACID PLANTS ARE FOUND IN : (MAKE LIST, THAILAND, SINGAPORTE, MALAYSIA, ETC) In the United States, in 1985 a court ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the low-level radioactive waste from phosphate plants, along with low-level waste from nuclear weapons plants and nuclear research materials. The EPA was forced to check the emissions by a law suit filed by the American environment group, the Sierra Club. US judge William H. Orrick ordered the EPA to act on low-level waste, and held then held "EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus in contempt of court for refusing to do so." [See Wall Street Journal Jan 17 85] This is an example of public groups using the courts to force governments to enforce environmental protection. However, the EPA set those limit for radioactive waste at twice the level proposed just two years earlier, in 1983. The administrative debate over how much radioactive waste is "safe" for the public, is still going on in the United States. [BOXED QUOTE:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> "The radioactivity of reclaimed phosphate lands sometimes is enough to cause exposures slightly greater than the present federal guidelines for maximum exposure of uranium miners." - Kirk-Othmer chemical industry encyclopedia. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>END BOXED QUOTE] HEAVY METALS FROM PHOSPHATES By the 1980's, most citizens of industrialized countries had already reached safety levels for intake of heavy metals, such as cadmium. The DAILY intake of cadmium in most countries in 1985 was 10-20glmg. [see Env-Health-Perspectives, Nov 85, v63, p127(6)] "Belgium is the world's foremost cadmium producer, making 1,380 tons each year. About 80% of cadmium waste originates from production of fertilizer from phosphate ore." - MULTINATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL OUTLOOK DECEMBER 8, 1988 The Belgion environment group Bond Beter Leefmilieu found serious heavy metal pollution at fertilizer plants in Prayon- Rupel, BASF, Rhone Poulenc and Tessenderlo Chemie, among others. "Cadmium concentrations at Prayon were 60.5 parts per million compared with a 20 ppm standard." [as above] In most civilized countries, the problem of heavy metals from phosphate plants is at least recognized, and some protective measures are in place. For example, in the United States, ocean dumping of phosphogypsum has been banned for years. Phosphate companies must store the substance on land, in designated facilities. For example, the IMC Fertilizer company planned additional storage for phosphogypsum at New Wales, Florida, at a cost of $50 million U.S. Some European countries have taken the next logical step, which is to stop the emissions of phosphogypsum into the environment. Beginning in July 1988, the Netherlands regulated the allowable cadmium discharge of the dutch company DSM from it's annual waste of 2.2 tonnes per year, to 0.6 tonnes cadmium by 1994. [See industry Journal "Phosphorus Potassium" Issue 155 pp 25-27 880531] Similarly, Denmark has moved to reduce heavy metals coming form phosphate plants, as well as heavy metals in the fertilizer itself. Heavy metals are found in trace amounts in the original phosphate rocks, but are concentrated by the fertilizer factories. This concentrated form is poured into a new environment as effluent, rather than left in the ground. In addition to the waste, fertilizer used by comsumers often carries significant quantities of heavy metals. Denmark decided to ban any fertilizers carrying more than 200 mg of cadmium per kilogram, and to lower that standard to 110 mg/kg by July 1998. [See industry journal: Fert. Int. Issue 272 pp 13 890401] In 1989 Denmark also banned imports of phosphate rock from South Africa due to apartheid. Twenty six percent of the Danish imports were from South Africa. As another stop-gap solution, the EC has given the African country of Senegal 21 million dollars to research phosphate sources with lower levels of cadmium. Phosphate exports account for 22% of Senegal's total exports. [See Reuter Dec. 13, 1990] A glaring exception to protective regulations is Great Britain, which allows (one might even say encourages) companies like Albright and Wilson to freely dump millions of tonnes of toxic phosphogypsum into the Irish Sea. Back in 1987, a Greenpeace chemist found an estimated 27 tonnes per year pouring out of the Albright and Wilson effluent pipe at Whitehaven, Cumbria. A & W's Cumbria plant produced 240,000 tonnes per year of phosphoric acid - and an astonishing 51 million tonnes per DAY of waste, most of it phosphogypsum, and all of it dumped directly into the Irish Sea with no treatment. [See Phosphorus Potassium Issue 152 pp 2 871211] Albright and Wilson's phosphate detergents had already been hit by environmentalists and governments wanting to curtail pollution. Now Greenpeace brought the issue of phosphate waste (and any industrial waste) to the fore. DEVELOP THIS, GP PRESS RELEASES. THEN DEVELOP THE POOR RECORD OF ENFORCEMENT