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AFP PHNOM PENH, Cambodia, 11 March 1999 -- Taiwanese chemical giant Formosa Plastics has sent a team to Cambodia to begin a clean-up of tonnes of toxic waste, officials said Thursday. Chhun Hong, a spokesman for the port authority at the southern coastal resort of Sihanoukville, said the mercury-tainted waste would be packed in barrels and loaded on a freighter within 18 days. "It will then be taken a high-technology country, perhaps the United States, which has the facilities to process the material," added a local official involved in the clean-up. Shifting the waste -- dumped close to Sihanoukville in December -- comes after a February 25 deal between Formosa Plastics and the government under which the company agreed to it back within 60 days. The waste dumping sparked rioting in Sihanoukville in December, when angry locals attacked government and port buildings in protest over alleged bribe-taking that led to the shipment. A panicked exodus of several hundred residents following health fears and two days of rioting after the deaths of at least two people who had contact with the waste, but so far no definitive link has been established. Initial examinations showed the waste, believed to be compressed ash from a industrial incinerator, contained high quantities of mercury, but health group fears it contained deadly toxins have yet to be established. FAIR USE NOTICE. This document contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. The Basel Action Network is making this article available in our efforts to advance understanding of ecological sustainability and environmental justice issues. We believe that this constitutes a `fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond `fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. More News |