A GRAVE HEALTH CONCERN FOR OUR PROVINCE AND NATION
I would like to draw your immediate attention to the St. Marys Cement Company in St. Marys, Ontario. They have revealed to the citizens of St. Marys their plans to do a test burn of plastic waste in the cement kilns. It will be a four day test burn in which 320 tons of plastic waste would be burned, possibly by December of 2008. After the test, their intent is to burn plastic waste in the future on a daily basis, up to 80 tons per day.
A petition is circulating throughout the town with signatures being added daily. Many of the Cement Plant employees opposed the plan to burn hazardous waste, as do many of the town’s citizens. A surprising number say they will move away from St. Marys if this plastic burn is allowed. The impact felt by the town will be devastating in more ways than one.
Burning plastic could release noxious gases that can equal any biochemical weapon. Not only will the environment and health of the people of this town be in jeopardy but also those in neighbouring locations such as London, Stratford, Kitchener, and beyond, including all of the valuable farmland and agriculture in between. The environmental manager for St. Marys Cement admits it will be controversial, since burning plastic is usually considered an environmental danger. The EPA says air pollution from Portland cement manufacturers (St. Marys Cement) can travel long distances, creating region-wide health problems. Already people who have heard about it as far away as Toronto are gravely concerned. And so should we all be concerned. If this Cement Plant is allowed to burn plastic, it will be a first in Canada. And once started, it will open the door for others to follow across the nation, as is already being contemplated in Bowmanville.
The toxins and dioxins produced by burning plastic waste are carried hundreds of miles by air currents contaminating crops for human and livestock consumption. They then accumulate in fish and animals including in beef, pork, chicken, milk, and eggs. They bioaccumulate in the environment, increasing their concentration as they move up the food chain, the largest concentrations being found in humans. Once inside the body, through inhalation or digestion by way of the food chain, it is there to stay.
The plastics industry is coming under increasingly determined fire worldwide for claiming that incinerating its products does not significantly increase emissions of the deadly chemical dioxin. Dioxin is a deadly by-product formed by the burning of plastics that contain chlorine. Chlorine is commonly present in plastic. Dioxin is the nastiest, most toxic man-made organic chemical. Its toxicity is second only to radioactive waste. It is a known human carcinogen and the most potent synthetic carcinogen ever tested in laboratory animals. The World Health Organization said “Once dioxins have entered the environment or body, they are there to stay.”
Dioxin made headlines several years ago at places such as Love Canal, where hundreds of families needed to abandon their homes due to dioxin contamination, and Times Beach, Missouri, a town that had to be abandoned as a result of dioxin. Vietnam War veterans exposed to dioxin-contaminated Agent Orange became seriously ill. A simple search on the Internet will tell you that plastic is not an alternative for fuel to even be considered. There are numerous places that have had to be evacuated or abandoned due to toxic contamination.
The tiniest amount of dioxin can cause damage and our bodies have no defence against it. (One trillionth of a gram contains 1.8 billion molecules of dioxin). Each molecule has the ability of mutating the cells in the body. Dioxin is a powerful hormone-disrupting chemical causing cancers, birth defects, reduced immunity, nervous system disorders, blood disorders, autism, liver disease, autoimmune system diseases, circulatory problems, miscarriages, loss of fertility, endocrine system disruptions, and alters the development of fetuses in humans and animals.
When hazardous waste (plastic) is burned as fuel, the amount and types of air contaminants increase, more so than with conventional fuel. There are higher levels of lead, mercury, cadmium, arsenic, chromium, including 14 other heavy metals. Other chemicals released in the burning process are as follows: chlorine, cyanide, benzene, carbon monoxide, carcinogens, chlorinated hydrocarbons similar to pesticides, etc. Pesticides will now be banned in Ontario for our safety as of Spring 2009, with a couple of exceptions. What about pesticide-like stack emissions?
The exposure to heavy metals can provoke serious health effects. Exposure to lead can cause development problems in the fetus and affect the neurological development and future intelligence of the child.
Mercury exposure can cause permanent damage to the brain, the kidneys, and to fetuses. Mercury affects the nervous system provoking vision and hearing changes, memory problems, nervousness, etc.
Exposure to cadmium can affect the kidneys, liver and lungs, cause genetic damage and has been proven to cause cancer in rats.
Nitrogen oxide emissions from cement plants cause severe respiratory problems and contribute to childhood asthma. This pollutant is also a significant contributor to acid rain.
Combustion is never 100% efficient, no matter how high the temperature of the kiln. Some fraction of the original alternative fuel will survive. The chlorine (from the burning of plastic) and organic molecules that survive combustion combine to produce dioxin. Dioxin will appear in the emissions as either surviving or newly synthesized material. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), cement kilns that burn hazardous waste (plastic) emit dioxins at rates more than 80 times higher than kilns that burn conventional fuels. Also cement kilns that burn hazardous waste produce more Cement Kiln Dust (CKD). There is on average 75 to 104 percent more dust per ton of clinker than kilns that do not burn hazardous waste. Did you know that dust from silica sand (used in cement making) causes cancer? The EPA recently reported the CKD from cement kilns burning hazardous waste (plastic) carries dioxins at concentrations of about 100 times higher than CKD from kilns burning only conventional fuels.
The portion not captured by pollution control devices is released directly into the air. Some of the captured CKD also escapes during transfer and disposal. As an example, one cement kiln burning 90 tons of waste per day was found to produce CKD at a rate of 200 tons per day.
The smaller CKD particles are those most likely to escape capture by pollution control devices. These particles are also the most likely to lodge deeply in the lungs and cause asthma attacks, heart and lung diseases, strokes, and premature mortality. Smaller airborne particles have also been linked to high rates of pneumonia, pleurisy, bronchitis, and asthma. The American Lung Association drew attention to the issue of CKD as follows: “Particulate matter is a health concern because inhaling even relatively low airborne concentrations of dust can cause or aggravate lung diseases such as asthma or emphysema, and is associated with premature death…Since CKD collected in air pollution control devices typically has a small particle size, poorly managed cement kiln dust handling, transport and disposal has been shown to cause severe fugitive dust and air pollution problems.”
St. Marys Cement is wholly-owned by Votorantin Cimentos, a Brazilian conglomerate based in Sao Paulo, Brazil with 2005 net revenues of approximately $10 billion Canadian dollars.
In the US and Europe, the communities that have lived with cement plants burning hazardous waste, recognized the myths (of ecological energy recycling) and have organized themselves to defend their health and environment. National health associations, such as The American Lung Association, have opposed burning hazardous wastes in cement kilns and have produced video testimonials about the health problems that this practice provokes in the local population.
The solution to mounting plastic waste in landfills is not to burn it as fuel. As the director of the Sierra Club Ontario put it, “These things can become landfills in the sky.” Safer alternatives must be found. For example, a few years ago they wanted to burn rubber tires in cement kilns and have now found multiple uses and benefits from the recycled material. They have now come out with a plastic made from corn that is completely biodegradable.
Since there is no way to shield crops from dioxin deposited on them from the air, or to later remove it, action to prevent crop contamination must be directed at the sources that produce dioxin, such as cement kiln incinerators.
Since the goal of prevention is to completely eliminate the pollutant, which experience shows is unattainable through control devices, it must be achieved by changing the process that generates the pollutant. This can be achieved by recycling, not burning it.
The alternative to burning hazardous wastes in the making of cement is simple: require the use of less contaminating fuels such as fuel oils or the least contaminating alternative, natural gas. The dioxin-free alternative is quite straightforward: the kiln returns to burning a conventional fuel instead of burning hazardous waste.
Ontario Power Generation plants have shipped ash containing mercury and other toxins to the St. Marys Cement Plant, where it was re-heated in cement kilns. If this is the case, then there’s more being burned in the kilns right now other than conventional fuel and the public is not even informed. People say they can smell plastic being burned now. They say there are a lot of trucks arriving in the night. Why are emission odours especially foul during the overnight hours?
I also question why the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) would not conduct tests on the Cement Plant’s emissions independently rather than allowing the Cement Company to do it themselves.
It has also been reported that the MOE advised the local elementary school to get the kids inside when a phone call was placed concerning the “bad smell” from the Plant. Yet the public is left uninformed. Quite often during the summer months, people are forced indoors and have to close their windows due to foul emissions from the Cement Plant.
It is all a matter of increased profit for the company, but at our expense. They receive a tip fee for disposing of the waste.
Despite petitions and protests in London, Ontario, a facility was allowed to burn plastic for approximately a year. It has now been completely bulldozed and they are now proceeding to attempt to dig up the polluted ground surrounding it. Can we not learn? What will it take before the government stops such a dangerous practice?
The Cement Company has everything to gain. They present their side of it at public meetings and try to reassure the public. In the meantime, businesses in town were threatened or intimidated until many store owners withdrew the petitions placed on their premises. Two petitions containing many signatures were taken and now another has disappeared. The Cement Plant neglected to inform Mayor Hahn and council that they have indeed made application to the Ministry of Environment for the test burn.
The town of St. Marys has hired Conestoga-Rovers & Associates to do an independent test of the kiln emissions for the test burn. A simple search on the Internet (http://www.craworld.com/en/index.asp – search “Orgaworld” on this site) shows a very strong connection between Orgaworld, who is supplying the Cement Plant with the plastic waste, and Conestoga-Rovers & Associates as recently as 2007. Will they give an unbiased appraisal?
The statistics from countries that have burned plastic waste speaks for itself. And we, the people, have everything to lose.
Public pressure is the only thing that will make them listen. Send your objections to the Ministry of Environment to Mr. Tesfaye Gebrezghi, Supervisor, Environmental Assessment and Approvals Branch, re: St. Marys Cement Alternative Fuels Demonstration Project. By fax: 1-416-314-8452, or by email: Tesfaye.Gebrezghi@Ontario.ca . Immediate action must be taken since time is running out to voice our objections.
Also contact the Mayor and Council, local MP, Premier McGuinty, Prime Minister Harper, Perth Environmental Officer at phone # 519-873-5025.
Only you can make a difference, so will you? Don’t delay!
References:
http://archive.greenpeace.org/toxics/documents/altdetoxCement.pdf
http://www.cleanairalliance.org/node/324
http://www.cleanairalliance.org/node/166
http://www.lfpress.com/perl-bin/publish.cgi?x=articles&p=241987&s=societe
http://plasticisrubbish.wordpress.com/2008/06/02/dioxins-why-you-dont-want-to-be-burning-plastic/
http://www.stopthequarry.ca/StMarys/StMarysCement.php
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15420800.300-burning-plastic-raises-a-stink.html
http://www.texascenter.org/publications/kiln.htm
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/CBNS/dxnsum.html
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/sep2008/2008-09-09-091.asp
http://www.texascenter.org/publications/kiln.htm
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