czech

Czech Republic
The chemical factory Spolana Neratovice is situated approximately 25 kilometres north of Prague on the river Elbe. It produced in the period of 1965-68 the chlorine herbicide 2,4,5-T. The former communist regime delivered it through various trade corporations to Vietnam where the American Army used it as a component for "Agent Orange". During production, a huge amount of dioxins were created and the former factory buildings are one of the most contaminated places on the Earth until today. These buildings were abandoned and closed more than 30 years ago. They contain rests of contaminated facilities, raw materials and intermediates from the cancelled production. Due to the immense dioxin contamination the reconstruction of the buildings is impossible and because of the fact that even maintenance is impossible, the buildings deteriorate quickly.

Lately, Greenpeace gained some important internal documents from Spolana. They prove an urgent risk endangering the surrounding environment with dioxins. This risk grows in time. Corrosion made part of the roof steel construction in one building collapse. The reinforced concrete construction of the contaminated buildings is so damaged by corrosion that cracks already appeared in one wall of one building. Extremely high dioxin concentrations were indicated in the surroundings of the contaminated buildings.

One of the buildings was put into a concrete sarcophagus halfway in 1998. The two other contaminated buildings are situated in an area near the Elbe that floods in average once every 50 years. If this happens, dioxins will be washed into the environment. The ground water under Spolana is contaminated not only with dioxins but with many other toxic chemical substances like: DDT, DDE, endrin, diendrin, lindane, benzene, 2,4,5-T, heptachlor, chloroform, HCB, HCH etc.

Dioxins and their characteristics
Dioxins are the most toxic substances ever produced. These solid substances are hard to dissolve in water, better in fat or organic solvents; it is acid and alkali resistant and also high temperature resistant.
Dioxins are extremely toxic at any kind of exposure, are virtually not biodegradable and bio-accumulate in the environment, which means that they concentrate in the bodies of living organisms, especially in their adipose (fatty) tissue.

Dioxins are carcinogenic and cause harm to the immune system. In children they can cause congenital developmental defects, harm neural system development (including reduction of cognitive capabilities) and sexual development. In women they can reduce fertility, cause harm to ovary function and a serious womb disease called endometriosis. In men they can cause decrease of sperm number, damage to structure or even atrophy of testicles, diminishing of genitals. Dioxins affect the function of the hormonal system of the adrenal glands and thyroids, as well as the functioning of insulin, vitamin A and melatonin. Dioxins are toxic for the liver, the spleen, thymus and skin, and they cause diabetes (damage the metabolism of fat and glucose).

Degree of building contamination
Chemical analysis proved an extremely high degree of contamination of building, air, soil and ground water. The highest concentration of dioxins (over 24 000 ng TEQ of dioxins/g (!)) was measured in the rests of chemical substances. We assume that there are tons of these rests stored in the buildings.

The immediate toxic impact of dioxins in the air of the contaminated buildings was proven by a rabbit experiment conducted by the Toxicology Department of the Military Medical Academy of J. E. Purkyne in Hradec Kralove. Rabbits in cages were located in the buildings in a way that they were exposed only to breathing the dioxin-contaminated air. The first rabbits already died on the 7th day of the experiment. Autopsy showed a significant damage of livers, lungs and kidneys.

 GREENPEACE PRESS RELEASE:

5 June 2003 -Greenpeace marked dioxin contaminate nature reserve near Spolana

4 June 2003 - CZECH NATIONAL PROPERTY FUND AND ENVIRONMENT MINISTRY BLUFFED
WHEN HANDING OUT 100 MILLION EURO DECONTAMINATION OF SPOLANA


19 May 2003 - CONTAMINATED NATURE RESERVE CERNINOVSKO WILL BE INVESTIGATED BY THE POLICE
DIOXIN LEVELS ARE UP TO FIVE HUNDRED TIMES EXCEEDED


13 May 2003 - NATURE RESERVE CERNINOVSKO NEAR CZECH CHEMICAL FACTORY SPOLANA POLLUTED WITH
DIOXINS AND PCBS


28 March 2003 - Dioxin pollution around Spolana exceeds normal values

13 March 2003 -GREENPEACE NOMINATES SPOLANA BOARD PRESIDENT PAVEL SVARC
FOR DIRTY MAN/WOMAN OF THE YEAR


19 November 2002 - Greenpeace found at Czech chemical factory Spolana food stuffs polluted with PCBs and dioxins

7 November 2002 - GREENPEACE: POSSIBLE FRAUDULENT COMMISSIONING OF CZECH DIOXIN DECONTAMINATION UNDER POLICE INVESTIGATION

4 November 2002 - GREENPEACE: DECISION OF THE NATIONAL PROPERTY FUND CONCERNING SPOLANA'S DIOXIN DECONTAMINATION HAS TO BE REVIEWED BY THE ANTI-MONOPOLY OFFICE

16 October 2002 - Greenpeace demands for liqudation of dioxins in Spolana best and safest technology
The Billion Crown deal of the Czech National Property Fund opens the door to corruption


16 September 2002 - GREENPEACE FILED SUIT AGAINST CZECH NATIONAL PROPERTY FUND CONCERNING SPOLANA INFORMATION

4 September 2002 - Czech chemical company Spolana hides toxic chemicals pollution

27 August 2002- Culprits of corporate crimes boast with "responsible care" Greenpeace demands global principals for corporate responsibility

18 July 2002 - GREENPEACE AND ARNIKA: SPOLANA SHOULD SAFEGUARD AND DECONTAMINATE ENTIRE POLLUTED SITE

16 July 2002 - GREENPEACE FOUND HEAVY MERCURY POLLUTION AT CZECH CHEMICAL PLANT SPOLANA NERATOVICE

28 May 2002 - SPOLANA ADMITS SERIOUSNESS OF PROBLEMS WITH DIOXINS AND MERCURY AND ANNOUNCES MEASURES

23 May 2002 - Eleven times higher levels of dioxins found in blood samples of former employees of chemical plant

6 May 2002 - GREENPEACE: SPOLANA - DIOXINS IN THE AIR - MERCURY TO THE ELBE

6 May 2002 - Greenpeace took samples of mercury pollution in Spolana Neratovice, Czech Republic

2 April 2002 - Czech National Property Fund refuses to release information on the decontamination of Spolana Neratovice, Czech Republic

22 February 2002 - Spolana also contaminates the air with toxic dioxins!

6 February 2002 - Greenpeace files criminal complaint against management Spolana Neratovice
Flooding could wash out poisons from the chemical plant!


24 January 2002- GREENPEACE SURVEYS LEVEL OF A 100-YEAR FLOOD AT SPOLANA AND WARNS FOR LIKELY FLOODING OF DIOXINS INTO ELBE RIVER

12 December 2001- Greenpeace challenges director Spolana:Give the people a Christmas present, secure the dioxin buildings!

27 November 2001 - Greenpeace requests for the help by International Commission for protection of Elbe: Dioxines from Spolana Neratovice must not be spread out by floods

8 November 2001- Greenpeace: Spolana Neratovice threatens to become an ecological catastrophe
DIOXINS ARE A TICKING TIMEBOMB, THAT WAITS FOR A FLOOD!



 LINKS:

Agent Orange
http://www.ultranet.com/~jkimball/BiologyPages/
        A/AgentOrange.html


http://njaoc.org/facts.htm

http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/benefits/herbicide/

http://www.lewispublishing.com/orange.htm

http://www.mts.net/~kolar/ZzK/2000/
        Vietnam.html


http://natura.eridan.cz/natura/2000/9/
       20000904.html

Disposal of the dioxin contamination
In June 1992 the ICF Inc. (USA), Aquatest, Chemoprojekt and Ekohydrogeo carried out a study dealing with old environmental burdens in Spolana including also the dioxin contaminated buildings. As a result, Agreement 33/94 with the Czech National Property Fund was signed. This Agreement binds the National Property Fund to cover the disposal of old environmental burdens financially up to 4,329 billion of Czech crowns. In 1998 the first contaminated building (A114) was partially taken apart and partially set in a sarcophagus of approximately 1000 cubic metres of concrete. According to a declaration of Spolana, the costs of this "decontamination" were 66 million Czech crowns.

In January 2001 the company Aquatest finished a risk analysis on the dioxin-contaminated buildings A 1420 and A 1030. Both, Spolana management and relevant public authorities, refuse to disclose the report. The report suggests 12 methods of handling the dioxin contamination using a projected investment of 300 to 400 million Czech crowns. According to Greenpeace, however, some of the suggested methods may post a huge danger for human health and the environment. Amongst these are methods as demolition by using explosives, followed by incineration (burning).

Catastrophe and its victims
In the years 1964 to 1968 about 80 people from Spolana suffered from dioxin contamination. 55 of them were hospitalised at the average age of 36,3 years when first admitted. Intoxication manifested itself mostly by skin changes (chloracne). Often suppurating cysts were forming on the skin; many of the symptoms were so severe and widespread that they changed the patient's appearance completely.

Dioxins lead also to disorders of the porphyry metabolism, manifesting itself in dark skin colour and other symptoms linked with liver porphyria. A frequent finding was also diabetes (disorder of sugar and fat metabolism), tiredness and weakness of lower limbs - also proven by electromyographic examination.

According to a statement of one of the involved physicians, dioxins are highly probably responsible for brain function disorders found during psychiatric examination of the affected workers. However, the psychological changes were also caused by the desperate situation of the patients: indeterminate future, disfigurement and death fear.

In 1981 Dr. Vejlupkova published an essay on the progress of dioxin intoxication of the Spolana workers in an American professional magazine, Archives of Environmental Health. This was met with a large response. Although Dr. Vejlupkova had fully respected the communist regime's general information ban and had not mentioned the location of the dioxin disaster, she was scapegoated by the political power and said to cause harm to the good name of socialist Czechoslovakia.

Spolana Neratovice, Agent Orange and Vietnam War
Agent Orange is the name for a compound existing of butyl ester 2,4,5-trichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4,5-T) and butyl ester 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid (2,4-D). The first substance was produced in the years 1965 - 1968 in the nowadays-contaminated buildings. The American Army used Agent Orange on a massive scale as defoliant in its confrontation with the communist troops hidden in the jungle of Vietnam. For the preparation of Agent Orange, the Americans used also 2,4,5-T from Spolana. At that time Spolana delivered its products through the Foreign Trade Corporation to Vietnam where Agent Orange was prepared directly at the U. S. air bases. The substance 2,4,5-T that was produced in Spolana was according to available information one of the substances most contaminated with dioxins, causing serious health problems.

Besides the victims amongst Spolana workers, also thousands of American soldiers (nowadays veterans) and hundreds of thousands Vietnamese were contaminated with dioxins in herbicides used for the Agent Orange production. Up till now there are still vast areas of Vietnam contaminated with dioxins.

Dr. Miroslav Suta, physician, Greenpeace Czech Republic

Greenpeace Czech Republic
Českomalínská 27, 160 00 Praha 6
tel: 02-24 31 96 67, fax: 02-311 22 89, mobil: 0603-443 140
e-mail: miroslav.suta@cz.greenpeace.org
Interenet: http://www.greenpeace.cz

  Greenpeace Czech Republic - Ceskomalínská 27, 160 00 Praha 6 http://www.greenpeace.cz