Toxic waste: Carcinogenic feared
2006-11-24 08:07
Abidjan - The toxic waste dumped across Ivory Coast's capital in August posed potential carcinogenic risks in the long run for people who were heavily exposed to the fumes, said an expert researcher on Thursday.
Charles Memel Kacou, director of Ivorian environmental research institute, IRSPE, expressed the fears as a government-appointed panel released findings of its probe into the waste dumping scandal.
He said: "Analyses of the toxic waste show a very heavy concentration of chlorine elements. That's what worries us more, because that presents a carcinogenic risk."
He added that ingestion of highly concentrated doses of chlorine could aid the destruction of cells and promote cancer in the long term.
Toxic waste kills 10
He blamed corruption, negligence and indifference among top officials in the administrative chain of government and local authorities for the unprecedented dumping of petroleum waste whose fumes poisoned thousands.
His report fingered a series of people from the ministry of transport, the directors of customs, ports and maritime affairs to the "surprisingly indifferent" Abidjan district administrators who let the toxic waste be dumped across the city.
Ten people died after falling sick from inhaling the toxic waste fumes, while thousands fell sick.
Kacou said the deaths were due to respiratory complications resulting from oxygen insufficiencies caused by strong hydrogen sulphide concentrations in the air.
Although 69 people were reported by authorities to have been hospitalised, Kacou said there were at least 300 hospitalisations of people poisoned by the waste.
'Abidjan lagoon is real'
He said: "The contamination of the environment, the grounds and the Abidjan lagoon is real, but it is necessary that the contents of the chlorinated elements, the most dreaded, be confirmed by long-term studies."
Kacou said that toxic waste contaminated horticultural products grown near the dumpsites and fish bred in the lagoon.
Meantime rebels in Ivory Coast, who controlled the north of the politically divided country, on Thursday called for the punishment of all those found responsible for the dumping of the toxic waste.
The New Forces rebels made the call after the release this week of a probe report by a government-appointed task force into the waste scandal, which cited "administrative dysfunctions, negligence and complicity" by responsible authorities.
Alain Lobognon, the New Forces spokesperson, asked Prime Minister Charles Konan Banny to "sanction" persons or groups of people clearly established to have been responsible.
Hundreds of tons of petroleum toxic waste from a ship chartered by European company, Trafigura, were dumped illicitly across more than a dozen open-air rubbish tips around Abidjan in mid-August.
The toxic sludge was dumped by Ivorian firm Tommy whose boss was arrested after the poisoning scandal broke.