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TOXIC WASTE CONVENTION DEBATES BAN ON DUMPING IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

by JOCELYN GECKER, Associated Press

KUCHING, Malaysia, Feb. 27, 1998 - Environmentalists and the United Nations urged rich countries Thursday to ratify a ban on dumping their toxic waste on the developing world. "It's endangering the oceans, poisoning the soil and air and especially causing acute health problems," Klaus Topfer, executive director of the U.N. Environment Program, told a conference on waste management. Topfer called on the more than 300 delegates from 117 countries to show solidarity in ratifying a 1995 agreement that bans the export of toxic waste from industrialized nations to the developing world. The five-day meeting ends Friday.

If ratified, the agreement - an extension of the 1989 Basel Convention regulating the international traffic of hazardous waste - would be the first global ban, although there are regional pacts against trafficking in hazardous waste.

Although the United States signed the Basel Convention in 1989, it has not signed on to the ban. The European Community and seven other countries have ratified the ban, but that's nowhere near the three-fourths majority of votes needed from the 117-member body to pass.

Topfer estimated about 450 million tons of toxic waste are created annually. One goal of the convention is to set up regional centers for training in the technology and management of hazardous waste. Since disposing of toxic waste in industrialized nations is expensive and strictly regulated, there is a huge incentive for rich countries to export their waste cheaply to poor nations, said Jim Puckett of the environmental group Basel Action Network.

The environmental group Greenpeace agreed. "The U.S.A. is one of the worst culprits," said Nityanand Jayaraman, Greenpeace spokesman for India. According to a report by the group, the United States sends zinc ash and lead acid batteries to India, incinerator ash to Haiti, and lead and cadmium, masked as fertilizer, to Bangladesh. Australia, Canada and New Zealand have been found guilty of similar offenses, Jayaraman said. U.S. environment officials defended U.S. hazardous waste laws, saying exporters must first get written consent from the country where the waste is sent and the waste is supposed to be recycled, not just dumped. Among items up for approval at the conference are lists defining what materials are hazardous, including lead, cadmium, and arsenic, and which are considered recyclable, such as copper, nickel, and zinc ash.

The conference was originally scheduled for October 1997 but had to be postponed because of the haze from Indonesian forest fires that smothered most of Southeast Asia for several months last year.

"This is the first environmental conference to have been canceled because of environmental problems," Puckett said. That "shows people the earth is really in serious trouble."

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