the toxic truth - Greenpeace

the toxic truth
The wasTe:
issues and
quesTions
Despite official investigations conducted in
Côte d’Ivoire and the Netherlands following
the dumping of the waste, as well as criminal
prosecutions in both countries, there remain a
number of questions about the waste and its
likely impacts on health and the environment,
which have never been answered. As
noted in Chapter 5, the lack of complete
disclosure about the waste has left a legacy
of uncertainty for many victims, who worry
about long-term health effects. Trafigura has
made claims about the likely health impacts,
including stating that the waste could not have
caused deaths or long-term health problems.
However, since the company has never
disclosed key information about the waste or
Trafigura’s own assessment of the impacts,
these claims cannot be verified.
Laboratory of Marine Waste Collection Netherlands (MAIN), formerly called
Amsterdam Port Services (APS). © Zeeman Reclame GRoep/eRwin VadeR
The composition of the
waste: what is known?
Several agencies conducted tests on the
waste material carried by the Probo Koala. The
most in-depth information that is available
about the composition of the waste comes
from the testing undertaken by Netherlands
Forensic Institute (NFI). 299 In addition, two
Dutch waste processing companies, AVR 300
and ATM Moerdijk, 301 analyzed samples taken
by Amsterdam Port Services (APS) when the
Probo Koala was in Amsterdam in July 2006.
Tests were also carried out by the Centre
Ivoirien AntiPollution (CIAPOL), part of the
Ivorian Ministry of Environment, on samples of
the waste found on the quay in Abidjan, as well
as waste from the dump site, Akouédo. The
available evidence confirms that the waste
was hazardous. 302 This was confirmed by the
courts in Netherlands: in 2010/11 Trafigura
was found guilty of the illegal export of
waste from the Netherlands to Africa and for
“concealing the harmful nature of the waste
for life and health” when the company brought
the waste to Amsterdam for processing. The
court quoted a statement by the NFI expert:
69
Chapter 6