Estonia impounds toxic tanker
2006-09-28 09:11
Tallinn - Estonian police on Wednesday impounded a tanker which discharged toxic waste in Africa that has killed at least eight people, on suspicions it was flushing similar waste into the Baltic sea.
The prosecutor's office said the Panamanian-registered Probo
Koala had been seized in the Estonian port of Paldiski.
Estonia has been asked by Ivory Coast to detain the ship, after an
eighth person in the west African country died from exposure to
the waste.
"We have impounded the ship as it is under criminal
investigation," state prosecutor Piret Seeman told Reuters.
Tests of Baltic waters
But Trafigura, the Dutch-based oil trading firm which had
chartered the ship, issued a statement late on Wednesday denying
that the vessel had been impounded and said it had commissioned
an international inquiry to examine the Ivory Coast incident.
Thousands of people in Ivory Coast have suffered vomiting,
stomach pains and other symptoms caused by toxic fumes from
waste from the ship in late August.
The incident has stretched the country's health services and forced its cabinet to resign.
Estonia's environment ministry said tests of the Baltic
waters around the vessel had shown disturbing results.
"Preliminary analysis shows that it contains similar
substances as those in the Ivory Coast," a spokesperson said.
'Not the same waste'
Trafigura, however, disputed the findings.
"The waste on the Probo Koala in Estonia is not the same
waste as discharged in Adidjan," it said in the statement.
The firm has described the waste dumped in Ivory Coast as
"chemical slops", a mixture of gasoline, spent caustic soda and
water and said it was a normal by-product of cleaning tanks used
to transport fuel.