press release

2003

Dioxin pollution around Spolana exceeds normal values

Praha, 28 March 2003 – The environmental organisations Greenpeace and Arnikawelcome that the Czech Environmental Ministry finally published the analysisresults concerning the contamination of the surroundings of Spolana Neratovicewith dioxins and poly-chlorinated bifenyls (PCBs) and wants to support thelargest part of the published recommendations (1). In contrary to the Ministry,however, both organisations interpret the published results as a confirmation ofhigher contamination with dioxins around Spolana compared to other areas. Theexpert report itself, for instance, declares that “the total sum of 7 PCBsexceeds the limits from regulation number 13/1994 in all assessed sedimentsamples”. The published summary in yesterday's press release from the Ministry,however, clearly conflicts with this.

“The concentrations of dioxins in soil and sediments around Spolana are clearlyhigher than the amounts in other areas in the Czech Republic. The results fromaround Spolana do not only, for instance, exceed the background concentrations,but also the industrial ones found in industrial areas in and around Zlin andBeroun,” notes Dr. Jindrich Petrlik, head of the programme on toxic substancesand wastes from Arnika (2, 3).

“Already in November 2002, we have found dioxin and PCB concentrations insamples from chicken eggs and duck-fat from Libis (a village directly next toSpolana Neratovice) that several times exceeded the present European limits. Wefind it irresponsible that state authorities up to today did not take furthersamples of this kind and did not take measures for the protection of the healthof local inhabitants,” commented Dr. Miroslav Suta, Greenpeace expert for toxicsubstances, and he added that the Main Hygiene Office already in November 2002promised to send experts directly, but that the now presented report does notcontain any results from such a study. “Local inhabitants have more interest inwhat is contained in the chicken and rabbits they raise, instead of in amountsof dioxins in water that long before washed away with the Elbe River. From thisstudy we, unfortunately, cannot conclude whether they can continue to consumethese animals, nor who will replace the damage in case their meat iscontaminated,” explained Suta (4).

Arnika and Greenpeace demand already for a long time that the Spolana stopsleakages from toxic substances into the environment and secures contaminatedsites and buildings. During the floods in 2002, the Spolana site was completelyflooded and thousands of chemical substances were washed into the environment.Greenpeace and Arnika therefore recently nominated the president of the board ofSpolana, Ing. Svarc, for the “dirty man of the year 2002” award. The CzechInspectorate for the Environment gave Spolana a penalty of 1,4 Million CzechCrowns (45.000 Euro) and the police investigates possible criminal offenses.

Further information:

Dr. Miroslav Suta, (Czech, English) Greenpeace toxic expert, mobile: +420.603 443 140, tel.: +420.224 319 667, +420.233 332 289, e-mail: miroslav.suta@cz.greenpeace.orgInternet: http://www.greenpeace.cz/agentorange/index_en.htm

Dr. Jindrich Petrlik, [Czech, English] Arnika - pogramme leader „Toxicsubstances and waste“, mobile: +420.603 582 984, e-mail: jindrich.petrlik@arnika.orginternet: http://havarie.arnika.org (only in Czech)

Ir. Jan Haverkamp (English, German, Dutch, Czech), Greenpeace Campaign Director in the Czech Republic, mobile: +420.603 569 243, e-mail:jan.haverkamp@cz.greenpeace.org

Mgr. Tomas Tetiva , (Czech, English) Greenpeace media assistant, mobile: +420.603 414 739, e-mail: tomas.tetiva@cz.greenpeace.org

Marek Jehlička, [Czech] spokes person Arniky: mobil: 606 727 942

NOTES FOR THE EDITOR:

(1) Press Release from the Czech Ministry of Environment on 27. 3. 2003:“Dosavadní výsledky měření v okolí Spolany neprokázaly výrazné znečištění”(Actual results of measurements around Spolana do not show large contamination)http://www.env.cz (only in Czech)

(2) Press Release Arniky on 24. 10. 2002: “Labe je znečištěné toxickými PCB”(The Elbe is polluted with toxic PCBs),http://arnika.org/havarie/tz.shtml?x=107275 and http://havarie.arnika.org/neratovice.shtml (only in Czech)

(3) Prof. RNDr. Ivan Holoubek, CSc. and coll.: “Shrnutí měření kontaminace okolíSpolany Neratovice polychlorovanými dibenzo-p-dioxiny, dibenzofurany a bifenylypo povodních 2002, Podklady pro jednání mezirezortní skupiny expertů”, (Resultsof contamination measurements around Spolana Neratovice with poly-chlorinateddi-benzo-p-dioxins, di-benzo-furanes and bifenyls after the floods of 2002,Report for the session of the multi-disciplinary expert group), TOCOEN REPORTNo. 236, November 2002. Tables of the results are available from Greenpeace.

(4) Press Release Greenpeace of 19.11.2002: Greenpeace found at Czech chemicalfactory Spolana food stuffs polluted with PCBs and dioxins,http://www.greenpeace.cz/release/02/021119en.htm

Tisk. zprávy