Press release
2001

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

Prague, 8 November 2001 - Greenpeace warned today during a press conference in Prague for the possibility of a large ecological catastrophe that could arise from the chemical plant Spolana in Neratovice, Czech Republic. This factory produced in the 1960s components for the well-known defoliant Agent Orange, which was used by the American military in the war in Vietnam. Today, the former production premises are closed and nobody is allowed access. The place is still heavily contaminated with extremely dangerous dioxins. The risk that these substances would leak into the environment at present grows rapidly, according to investigations by Greenpeace. The environmental organisation therefore calls upon the management of Spolana, that the chemical plant takes urgent steps to avoid acute disaster.

"Dioxins are highly toxic substances, that already in extremely low concentrations can cause cancer and threaten the nerve and immunity systems of living creatures, including people," comments Miroslav Suta, physician and leader of the toxic campaign of Greenpeace in the Czech Republic.

Greenpeace presented clear indications, that the technical situation of the former production unit that is contaminated with dioxins is rapidly deteriorating and that the risk for the environment grows. In one of the constructions already parts of the roof collapsed because of corrosion. According to experts, these former production units of Spolana are one of the most contaminated hotspots in the world. In a test in the 1970s, the military toxicological laboratory of Hradec Kralove exposed several test rabbits in one of the contaminated buildings for a biological test. Some died already within 7 days only by inhaling the air! (1)

"The contaminated objects are in the direct vicinity of the Elbe River. In case of a one in fifty years flood, the dioxins already could be washed into the environment," warned Suta and added that such a catastrophe would not only endanger the people in the surrounding areas of Spolana, but also people living around the Elbe downstream - in the Czech Republic as well as the Federal Republic of Germany.

The contaminating dioxins at Spolana Neratovice originated in the years 1965 to 1968, when the firm produced the chorine herbicide 2,4,5,-T. Mixing this substance with the herbicide 2,4-D created the leaf remover Agent Orange, that the American army used in the Vietnam war (2). The production of 2,4,5-T at Spolana had to be stopped in 1968, because around 80 employees started to suffer heavy health problems (3D). Dioxins were identified as direct cause.

Since that time, only little is known of how the components of the military substance Agent Orange, that were produced by Spolana in Neratovice, came into the airplane spraying tanks of the American army. It is clear, that this must have happened in the same time that the children of the at that time communist Czechoslovakia did compulsory money collections at school for the victims of the war in Vietnam.

One of the three contaminated objects was in 1998 partly covered in a concrete sarcophagus. The other two objects (that according to available information are said to be contaminated even worse) still wait for decontamination. Spolana recently gave a so-called risk study in assignment to the problems with the contaminated objects, which, however, is kept confidential by the plant management.

"Greenpeace considers the risks around the dioxins in Spolana as very serious. Spolana should first of all secure the contaminated objects against flooding and leaking of dioxins in the environment, and then start decontamination as soon as possible. Dioxins are in this case even worse than radiation, because it is not possible to measure them easily, and in case of an accident would be extremely difficult to get rid of.



Further information:
Dr. Miroslav Suta, coordinator toxics campaign mobile: +420.603.443 140 (Czech and English),
e-mail: miroslav.suta@cz.greenpeace.org
Vaclav Vasku, press spokes person, mobile: +420.603.414 739 (Czech and English)
Jan Haverkamp, campaign director, mobile: +420.603.569 243 (English and German),
e-mail: jan.haverkamp@cz.greenpeace.org


internet: http://www.greenpeace.cz/agentorange



Notes for the editor:
(1) The acute toxic test for dioxins in the inner air of the closed objects was carried out with test rabbits by the Department of Toxicology of the Military Medical Academy J.E. Purkyne in Hradec Kralove. The test rabbits were placed in cages inside the contaminated area in such a way that they were exposed only by breathing. In object A 1420 they died after 7, 10 and 12 days of exposure. Source: Dokumentace hodneceni vlivu na zivotni prostredi dle zakona c. 244/92 Sb., Chemoprojekt Praha, April 1996

(2) http://www.ecn.cz/dioxin/spolrea.htm

(3) Pazderova-Vejlupkova, Nemcova, Picova, Jirasek: The Development and Prognosis of Chronic Intoxication by Tetrachlordibenzo-p-dioxin in Men, Archive of Environmental Health,1981, 36, 1, pp 5-11