TL: THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY: MERCURY WASTES DUMPED BY THOR IN SOUTH AFRICA SO: Greenpeace International Waste Trade (GP) DT: April 10, 1990 Keywords: toxics hazardous waste trade south africa mercury problems heavy metals gp / A Greenpeace International Waste Trade Profile April 10, 1990 THOR: The Norse god of thunder and the principal war god. MERCURY: The Roman god of merchants, thieves and vagabonds. "The true rule of law is that a person who for his own purposes brings on his land and collects and keeps there anything likely to do mischief if it escapes, must keep it at its peril, and is answerable for all the damage which is the natural consequences of its escape." -- English common law decision, 1865. THE SCHEME Each year, the British-owned firm, Thor Chemicals, imports thousands of pounds of mercury wastes from the United States and Europe, and burns them in their mercury reprocessing plant in South Africa. The mercury smelter, like virtually every international dumpsite, most severely impacts those who are politically- and economically-disenfranchised. Thor Chemicals lies just outside the South African government-designated KwaZulu "homeland," whose residents work at the plant for survival wages (less than $200 each month) in exchange for exposing their bodies to some of industry's most deadly poisons. Thor's plant has also severely contaminated the Mngeweni River, a stream used by the people of KwaZulu for bathing, and washing dishes and clothes. South Africa is the only country on the continent of Africa that allows the import of foreign waste. KNOWN WASTE SHIPMENTS American Cyanamid ships at least ten tons of mercury wastes to Thor each year. Cyanamid's wastes are loaded onto container ships at Global Marine Terminal in Jersey City, New Jersey, and are shipped to Durban, South Africa, by the Mediterranean Shipping Company. The wastes are then trucked to Thor Chemicals' mercury smelter on Cato Ridge. Greenpeace estimates that the American Cyanamid's waste shipments to South Africa from 1986 to 1989 totaled 75,000 pounds. The most recent known Cyanamid shipments to South Africa occurred on August 26, 1988 (20,456 pounds); January 19, 1989 (10,790); and on April 9, 1989 (10,997 pounds). The names of the ships carrying the wastes include the Gina S. and the Michele. Following these shipments, Cyanamid informed the U.S. EPA that they planned to ship a total of 20,200 to 22,200 pounds of wastes from New Jersey to South Africa in two separate shipments. The South African government gave its approval to the shipments in a cable dated October 3, 1989, which means that Cyanamid is allowed to ship these wastes to South Africa before October 2, 1990. The full extent of Thor's waste imports in South Africa is unknown. Thor executives are secretive about their operations, and the scope of shipments from Europe to South Africa is largely unknown. In March 1990, the managing director of Thor in South Africa, Steve van der Vyver, told the South African environmental group, Earthlife Africa, that Thor imports toxic wastes from Manchester and Ramsgate in the U.K. Also in March, members of Earthlife took photographs of a waste barrel on the plant property labeled "Thor Chemical, Manchester." But the generator of these wastes is unclear. Also unknown are the fates of four 1987 shipments of mercury wastes totaling 8,800 pounds, from Thor's U.S. branch (which does not manufacture waste) to Thor's U.K. offices (which do not dispose wastes) (1). Under U.S. and U.K. law, waste traders are not required to report the generators or disposers of the wastes that they ship. THE POISON Mercury is an extremely poisonous element which can destroy the central nervous system, and can cause birth defects. Non-fatal symptoms of mercury poisoning include mental deterioration, nervous tremors, fits of laughing and crying, the loss of the senses of hearing, sight, smell and taste, and severe inflammation of the digestive system. At room temperature, mercury is a colorless, odorless gas. When it becomes a waste, it becomes one of industry's most deadly poisons. As one mercury expert wrote, "people exposed to mercury may be victims of a poison they can't see, touch or smell. It takes very little mercury to begin creating the sad symptoms of poisoning. It adversely affects the central nervous systems and makes people slowly go insane." (2) The effects of mercury on the human body vary according to the form mercury takes. Elemental MERCURY VAPOR immediately attacks the central nervous system, including the brain. Effects include emotional instability, tremors and ulcers (3). In severe cases, exposure to mercury vapors leads to the degeneration of brain cortex (4). MERCURIC SALTS cause, among other things, seizures and abdominal pain, and can cause circulatory collapse. ORGANIC MERCURY has a more- delayed, severe, toxic effect on the human body. It can takes weeks for the symptoms of exposure to organic mercury to appear. Effects include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and lethargy (5). a waste containing at least 0.2 parts per million of mercury is considered a hazardous waste (6). The natural background level of mercury in soil is less than 0.1 parts per million. The U.S. criteria for freshwater aquatic life protection -- considered by many to be a weak standard -- is 0.000012 milligrams per liter of mercury, on average, in a body of water (7). Results from numerous tests for mercury in the sediment and water of the Mngeweni River far exceed these limits. Mercury becomes more soluble, bioavailable, persistent and toxic in aquatic ecosystems. Bacteria in the water column and in sediment converts inorganic mercury to highly-toxic and volatile methyl mercury. Mercury bioaccumulates and biomagnifies in aquatic environments, and concentrates in the muscle of fish. THE PLANT AND ITS IMPACT Thor built its Cato Ridge, South Africa mercury reprocessing plant in the late 1970's, after building a pilot mercury reprocessor in Crayford, England. Thor's first customer was the South African firm, African Explosives & Chemical Industries (AE & CI) Ltd., which signed a contract in 1976 for the use of Thor's mercury catalyst in the manufacture of 100,000 metric tons per year of poly-vinyl chloride (PVC) (8). Following the signing of this contract, Thor built the Cato Ridge plant. Thor's South African mercury reprocessing plant burns mercury waste and waste containers in a furnace at 900 degrees Celsius [1656 degrees F.] Most of the mercury fumes from the burning sludge are cooled and recovered for use in the production of Thor's mercury catalyst. Some of the mercury invariably escapes the incinerator stack, and enters the atmosphere. Emissions from a similar plant in New York average 0.27 pounds/day (9). Impure recovered mercury is landfilled on-site. Emissions and spills are believed to have severely contaminated the soil of the Thor plant. When it rains, the contaminated soil is carried downstream, into the head of the Mngeweni River. Holding ponds for mercury-contaminated liquids frequently overflow when it rains, further contributing to contaminated run-off. -- ORGANIC WASTE EMISSIONS What distinguishes Thor from similar mercury reprocessing plants in the United States is its handling of mercury wastes that are heavily contaminated with toxic organic wastes. Charlotte Cuff, a spokesperson for American Cyanamid said in July 1988, "Mercury smelters in [the U.S.] were not equipped to process and recover waste that contains mercury and other organic chemicals. Thor does this." (10) Ms. Cuff's statement is correct; however, there is a good reason why mercury reprocessors will not take Cyanamid's wastes. Five mercury smelters operate in the United States, including one in Wanaque, New Jersey, close to the Cyanamid plant that ships wastes to South Africa. All of the U.S. mercury smelters handle mercury wastes with less than 3% total organic carbon. The reprocessors do not handle organomercury compounds. The wastes shipped from Cyanamid to South Africa are contaminated with 30-40% organic wastes (11). U.S. mercury smelters do not handle Cyanamid's mercury wastes because the environmental consequences of burning mercury wastes heavily contaminated with organic chemicals can be severe. Recent scientific studies of incineration processes have proven that several classes of highly toxic compounds are generated in significant quantities, regardless of the temperature of the incinerator. Highly toxic, bioaccumulative chemicals such as polychlorinated dioxins and furans are formed in virtually every incinerator studied where organic matter and a source of chlorine are burned together (12). -- EVIDENCE OF CONTAMINATION John Dyer, a Thor Chemicals executive, said in 1988, "We do not regard ourselves as importers of toxic waste... Our plant is environmentally safe and meets all the necessary standards. All the local authorities are satisfied it is safe. We believe our approach is absolutely responsible and we go to great pains to ensure it is safe." (13) However, recent investigations by three different organizations (the South African government's Umgeni Water Board, the U.S. newspaper St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and Greenpeace International) prove that Thor's plant has severely contaminated the Mngeweni River. The results of these investigations leave little question that Thor's waste import plant poses a severe threat to the ecological integrity of the Mngeweni River valley, and to the physical well- being of the residents of the valley. If you wish to comprehend the scope of this threat, you must understand the horrific toxicity of the waste material handled at the plant and remember that children swim and play in the river just downstream from the plant. -- UMGENI WATER BOARD INVESTIGATIONS The South African government's Umgeni Water Board monitors the Umgeni River for pollutants. The Umgeni runs through the heart of KwaZulu, and is the primary source of water for people in the "homeland," as well as the millions of residents of Pietermaritzburg and Durban in the province of Natal. The Mngeweni River begins just below Thor's plant, and ends at its confluence with the Umgeni, several miles below Thor. In July 1988, the Umgeni Water Board found mercury in Umgeni River water, 25 miles downstream from Thor, at a level of 40 parts per billion. (14) Umgeni Water Board found alarming levels of mercury in Mngeweni River water. According to Dr. John Howard, a pollution scientist at Umgeni Water, water samples taken in late July and early August contained mercury levels more than 1,000 times the World Health Organization's standard of one microgram of mercury per litre of drinking water. Dr. Howard said, "The first sample showed 1,550 micrograms per litre, and the second sampling 1,900 micrograms per litre." In response, the South African Department of Water Affairs [DWA] took the unusual step of announcing an investigation of the pollution. At the time, Lin Gravelet-Blondin of the DWA said "We are concerned about the matter and intend holding a meeting with Thor Chemicals and Umgeni Water within the week to investigate the matter further." (15) The water board later ordered Thor to exhume sediment and polluted water from the head of the Mngeweni, and haul it back up to Thor's plant (16). Thor has not yet taken this step. -- ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH INVESTIGATION In November 1989, U.S. newspaper reporter, Bill Lambrecht, of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, traveled to Cato Ridge to survey the impact of U.S. waste shipments to Thor Chemicals. Lambrecht took a sample of muddy water at the head of the Mngeweni, and a test of this sample recorded mercury levels of 1,500 parts per million. Mercury experts told Lambrecht that these levels are among the highest levels of mercury pollution ever recorded. Dr. Frank D'Itri, a mercury expert at Michigan State University, told Lambrecht, "All hell would break loose if something like this were found in the U.S. This is gross contamination." (17) -- GREENPEACE INVESTIGATION In February, following the shocking mercury findings by Bill Lambrecht and the Umgeni Water Board, Greenpeace sent an investigative team to Cato Ridge. The purpose of the investigation was to sample soil and sediment around and downstream from Thor, and to document this major waste import plant through film and photographs. On February 1st and 2nd, Greenpeace investigators took soil and sediment samples along the boundary of Thor's plant, down the Mngeweni River to its confluence with the Umgeni River. Test results from these samples clearly indicate that Thor is responsible for the mercury poisoning of the Mngeweni. Analyses of these samples run by Queen Mary College in London found some of the highest recorded levels of mercury contamination yet found in the Mngeweni River. A sediment sample taken at the head of the Mngweni was contaminated by 1,764 parts per million of mercury -- which is 8,810 times the U.S. standard for classifying a waste as "hazardous." About two kilometers below Thor, the Mngeweni flows through the recent settlement of Fredville. This collection of huts and small farms is inhabited largely by refugees of the intense political violence that has enveloped much of kwaZulu and Natal. Samples of Mngeweni river sediment just above Fredville registered levels of mercury of 0.33 and 0.91 parts per million (ppm) -- well above the U.S. standard for hazardous wastes of 0.2 ppm. The women of Fredville regularly use the Mngeweni for washing their families' clothes and dishes, while their children play and swim in the mercury-contaminated stream. Living on the edge of survival, where war, hunger and disease are daily burdens, the invisible threat of Thor's mercury pollution is difficult to comprehend. As the Mngeweni winds its way to the Umgeni, and the distance from Thor's plant increases, the levels of mercury pollution in the river sediment predictably decline. At the confluence of the Mngweni, mercury levels in sediments ranged between 4 and 30 parts per billion. Queen Mary College of London concluded that the Mngeweni River samples taken by Greenpeace prove that Thor Chemicals poses an immediate risk to human health and the environment in the Mngeweni River valley. Based on this investigation, Queen Mary College scientists called for: an exhaustive evaluation of the exposure risk to the local community caused by Thor's mercury plant; an extensive hydrogeological evaluation to determine the influence of Thor on groundwater quality; and a remediation program for the contaminated sediment of the Mngeweni River. A Greenpeace video documentary on Thor's waste import plant, titled "How Green is the Valley?," is available through Greenpeace video. Photographs of the plant, its workers and people living along the Mngeweni are also available from Greenpeace. THOR'S IMPACT ON WORKERS' HEALTH According to Earthlife Africa, two workers at Thor's plant have "gone mad" since January 1990, apparently due to exposure to mercury vapors, which can ravish the body's central nervous system. In March, Earthlife spoke to laborers at Thor and were told that two workers were taken to the hospital after they kept "doing and saying strange things, and were shaking a lot," which are typical symptoms of mercury poisoning. The managing director of Thor's South Africa plant, Steve van der Vyver responded, "I don't deny that workers get sick, but mad, that's absolute nonsense. We check the guy's urine every week and if levels exceed 200 micrograms of mercury per litre they are given orange juice to drink and taken away from the plant." (Once in the human brain, it can take several years for mercury to leave.) (18) Workers at Thor's South Africa plant are not unionized, and most are paid less than $200 a month for exposing their bodies to one of industry's most poisonous types of waste. (19) Officials of the South African Chemical Workers Industrial Union will join protests in the United States and South Africa against waste shipments to Thor. Ron Compton, the general secretary of the South African Chemical Workers Industrial Union told the WEEKLY MAIL (of South Africa) in early April, "our union is concerned with the health of workers in the workplace and with the condition of the environment. We believe in the principle that countries which export their wastes and dispose of them in Third World countries should take responsibility for their own industrial poisons." (20) THE CORPORATE PLAYERS The only people who economically benefit from this waste trade venture are the bureaucrats, executives and shareholders of Thor Chemicals and the firms that ship wastes to Thor. The rich get richer, and the poor get poisoned. The politically- and economically-powerless people of South Africa are easy prey for the world's waste traders. Most dirty industrial plants in South Africa, like Thor Chemicals, are deliberately built adjacent to townships and "homelands," to save companies the trouble of housing labor. For these firms, freely discharging wastes into the air and water of these areas is just benefit of doing business in South Africa. -- THOR CHEMICALS Thor Chemicals manufactures a range of mercury products and markets them around the world. Products include mercury catalysts for use in rubber manufacturing, phenylmercuric acetate for use as a paint mildewicide, and other biocides and products related to paint and wood preservative industry. The primary shareholder of Thor Chemicals Holdings Ltd. is Desmond Cowley, who owns over 125,000 of Thor's 200,000 shares. Desmond Cowley lives in Ridgefield, Connecticut, USA. Thor Chemicals' headquarters are in Cheadle Hulme, Cheshire, U.K. (21) Beyond South Africa, Thor Chemicals operates subsidiaries in Australia, West Germany, France, Italy and the United States. Most of these subsidiaries are not manufacturers, but rather are brokers for Thor's products. In the U.S., Thor stocks its mercury-based products in Connecticut, for sale and distribution in the U.S. (22). The address of the Thor's U.S. branch is: Thor Chemicals Inc., Brook House, 37 North Ave., Norwalk, CT 06851 (203) 846-8613. -- AMERICAN CYANAMID American Cyanamid, with headquarters in Wayne, New Jersey, is a large and diverse multinational corporation. Cyanamid's products include pharmaceuticals, pigments and pesticides. It is a publicly- owned company, with net sales of $4.6 billion in 1988. It was the sixth largest chemical firm in the U.S. in 1988, with earning of $305 million. (23) American Cyanamid purchases Thor's mercury catalyst for use in the production of synthetic rubber at its Bridgewater, New Jersey plant. It ships the resulting mercury wastes back to Thor in South Africa for disposal, as part of their catalyst purchase agreement. To Cyanamid, these shipments are just another way of increasing their profits. In 1988, Cyanamid agreed to spend a record $84 million to exhume wastes from a Superfund toxic waste dump at its Bridgewater plant. From 1929 to the 1970s, Cyanamid dumped a cocktail of poisons -- including mercury wastes -- directly into the ground, in 27 pits that surround the Bridgewater site (24). Cyanamid is a major polluter throughout North America, discharging millions of pounds of hazardous wastes from Florida to Ontario. Its Louisiana plant is one of the four largest hazardous waste generators in the United States (25). THE GOVERNMENTS Thor Chemicals would be unable to receive foreign mercury wastes in South Africa without the complicity of the federal governments of South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom. -- SOUTH AFRICAN LAWS AND POLICY While most of Africa is completely off-limits to waste dumping, South Africa offers an open door to the world's waste traders. The Lome IV Convention, signed last December between the European Community and 68 ACP (African, Pacific and Caribbean) states, contains a ban on all waste shipments to 45 African States. The Organization of African Unity has resolved to ban all waste imports into the African continent. But these important laws and policies have no bearing on this politically-isolated country; of course, South Africa is not a member of the ACP or the OAU. The South African government has no legislation prohibiting waste imports, and is actively considering building an enormous incinerator complex near the Namibian border for burning U.S., European and South African hazardous wastes. The South African government has not attempted to halt waste shipments to Thor Chemicals' mercury reprocessing plant, despite strong evidence that Thor's mercury wastes have severely polluted the Mngeweni River. S.A. government officials have denounced reports of Thor's mercury pollution of the Mngweni for causing "undue alarm" about Thor. Accusations against journalists and environmentalists are often accompanied by praise for the operations of Thor. Last December, Mr. Lin Gravelet-Blondin, the assistant pollution control director of the Department of Water Affairs, said, "Thor has done a tremendous amount to prevent pollution and we have had full co-operation of the company." (26) In March, South African Minister of Environment and Water Affairs, Gert Kotze, said that the mercury pollution at Thor "was no cause for concern at present." But Kotze did say that the pollution appears to have originated from mercury-contaminated effluent stored in ponds on Thor's property.(27) It is little surprise that Umgeni Water Board officials have joined other S.A. government officials in downplaying the dangers of Thor's plant. Last December, Bill Richards, the scientific services director of Umgeni Water, said, "Our opinion is that there is not a major problem in the area... There are signs of mercury pollution there, which could have a historic cause due to the earth dams that were used for effluent many years ago. To imply that Zulu people in the area are accumulating mercury in their bodies through food and water is misleading... and will cause them undue alarm. Umgeni Water is very satisfied with [Thor's] effluent processing facilities." (28) -- U.S. LAWS AND POLICY Under U.S. law, American Cyanamid's waste exports to South Africa are entirely legal. Waste exports regulations require Cyanamid to file a notice of intent to export wastes, which is then forwarded to the South African government for their approval. The amount of information required in this notice is threadbare, and there is nothing the U.S. government can do to stop the scheme, as long as South Africa approves it. Despite the ongoing U.S. contribution to mercury pollution in South Africa, President George Bush's administration has not proposed any new laws that would empower them to prohibit U.S. waste shipments to South Africa, or anywhere else. Rather, the Bush administration announced in late March that it is signing the Basel Convention on waste trade -- which mirrors existing waste trade notification systems in the U.S. and the European Community -- and will accordingly adapt U.S. waste exports regulations to the minimal requirements of Basel. The only non-OECD countries that regularly import wastes from the United States are Mexico, Brazil and South Africa. All of the hazardous wastes shipped to these countries are destined for so- called "recycling" facilities. In reality, these recycling plants are extremely dirty metals reprocessing plants that rely on highly- toxic wastes as a cheap alternative to raw materials. Also, because of a significant loophole in U.S. toxics-release reporting requirements, American Cyanamid does not need to report these waste exports under the federal Community Right-to-Know law. This loophole allows companies to not report off-site transfers of wastes which are recycled, recovered or re-used, because they are considered "products in commerce." This deprives citizens in the U.S. of important information in their efforts to demand waste prevention and toxics use reduction from industries in their communities. Worse, this loophole allows American Cyanamid to report its waste exports to the South African mercury reprocessing plant as "waste minimization" in its annual toxics-release inventory, if it chooses to report them at all (29). -- EEC AND U.K. LAWS AND POLICIES The European Community directive on regulating E.C. waste exports (84/631/EEC) can not prevent the kind of waste shipments made by Thor Chemicals in the UK to South Africa. The statutes of the directive only require that a notification be sent from the exporting country to the importing one. If the receiving country does not object within 30 days after receipt of notification, the shipment will go ahead. It is unlikely that the South African government would have objected to these shipments if such a regimen had been followed. However, even this very weak procedure can be ignored with "waste from non-ferrous metals which is intended for re-use, regeneration, or recycling." These wastes (SUCH AS MERCURY) are exempt from all requirements of the directive excepting that they must be accompanied by a document and that a copy of that document must be forwarded to the receiving country (Article 17). There is no opportunity for objections to be raised. Mr. Chris Patten, the Secretary of the Environment of the United Kingdom has urged all European partner governments to adopt a policy of insisting that richer nations dispose of all their own hazardous waste and to stop sending it abroad for treatment. (30) THE SOLUTION As long as wastes are allowed to leave the world's most heavily industrialized countries, they will wind up in places like Cato Ridge, South Africa. Economics dictate that wastes will always be dumped on those with the least political and economic power, as long as waste remains a commodity for the free market. Places like Thor Chemicals' mercury reprocessing plant prove that wastes do not belong on the free market. As the opening quote from English common law states, everyone who produces a toxic waste must be responsible for its consequences, and must prevent the hazards inherent in them from being passed on to those who have not enjoyed the economic benefits of its production. The only way to prevent tragedies like Thor's Cato Ridge mercury plant is to make the international waste trade a global crime. Once produced, mercury wastes can not be safely disposed or "reprocessed." The ultimate solution to mercury pollution is to go to the source, changing products and processes to prevent the generation of toxic waste. Through the use of safe materials and clean technologies -- production process which are compatible with the planet's natural processes -- the global village can reach the goal of zero toxic discharge and ensure a healthy, prosperous, and sustainable future. Working with Greenpeace are thousands of groups around the world, like Earthlife Africa, who are confronting the manufacture, use and disposal of toxic chemicals in their towns and countries. Together, we have made at least 81 countries off-limits to the international waste trade. Together, we form a global movement for environmental justice, a unified voice to end toxic pollution and implement clean technologies. FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT: Greenpeace Waste Trade Project 1436 U St., N.W. Washington, D.C. 20009 Phone: (202) 462-1177 Fax: (202) 462-4507 FOOTNOTES 1. Conversation with Wendy Grieder, U.S. EPA Office of International Activities, April 6, 1990. 2. John Hundall, "Poisoned Soviet Schoolchildren Receive Rescue Assistance from Arizona Instrument Corporation," press release, March 29, 1989. 3. Goodman. Pharm Basis Therap 7th ed 1985, p. 1612. 4. Patty. Indus Hyg & Tox 3d Ed. Vol 2 1981-82, p. 1777. 5. Micromedex, 1974. 6. 40 CFR Ch. 1, Section 261.24 (7-1-88 Edition). 7. Ward Stone, NY Dept. of Conservation, "Evaluation of Off-site Contamination Associated with a Mercury Recycling Facility: Mercury Refining Company (Colonie, N.Y.): Draft (including maps), 1989. 8. Polymers Paint Colour Journal, Feb. 25, 1976, p. 140. 9. Stone. 10. Peter Younghusband, "Toxic waste shipment to S.Africa defended, Washington Times, July 14, 1988. 11. American Cyanamid, Notices of Intent to Export Hazardous Wastes, 1986-1989. 12. R. de Fre and T. Rymen, "PCDD and PCDF Formation from Hydrocarbon Combustion in the Presence of Hydrogen Chloride," Chemosphere, 19 (1-6) in press. 13. Washington Times. 14. Bill Lambrecht, "Zulus Get Exported Poison," St. Louis Post- Dispatch, November 26, 1989. 15. Strini Moodley, "Chemical factory's mercury waste polluting Natal stream," Natal Witness, August 11, 1989. 16. Lambrecht. 17. Ibid. 18. Chris Albertyn, "Thunder at Thor," Earthlife News, April 1990. 19. Conversation with Albertyn, March 23, 1990. 20. Weekly Mail (S.A.), April 6, 1990. 21. Conversation with Paul Brown, The Guardian (U.K.), April 9, 1990. 22. Mod. Plast. Int. Vol 76 Issue 5, p. 76. 23. Chemical & Engineering News, Vol. 67, No. 8, February 20, 1989. 24. "Cyanamid Accepts $84 Million Superfund Cleanup Plan," United Press International, May 26, 1988. 25. Conversation with Darryl Malek-Wiley, Louisiana environmental activist. 26. "Natal company may sue U.S. newspaper," Natal Witness, December 5, 1989. 27. Earthlife News. 28. Natal Witness, December 5, 1989. 29. Action Alert, Working Group on Community Right-to-Know, 1990. 30. The Independent, September 19, 1989.