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GREENPEACE PROTESTS AGAINST DR. OETKER FOOD COMPANY EXPORTING ASBESTOS TO ASIA

Greenpeace Press Release

HAMBURG, Germany, 10 May 1999 – The food company, Dr Oetker, wants to have two ships contaminated with asbestos scrapped in Asia, and is disregarding the fact that this endangers workers there. Greenpeace has exposed this today in a direct action on the Jahnplatz in Bielefeld. There, Greenpeace activists this morning put up a 20-by-12 foot board showing a photo of Indian workers breaking up ships under the company sign saying, 'Dr Oetker exporting cancer'. Below the company is accused of producing 'pudding powder for Germans – asbestos dust for Indians'.

"What Oetker is doing to workers in Asia you can only call bodily harm," says Greenpeace's toxic waste expert, Andreas Bernstorff, in accusing the food producer. "Oetker ought not to be allowed to send any more ships to Asia. This is illegal. No EU country is allowed to send asbestos and toxic heavy metals such as lead paints to the Third World. It is a violation of the Basel Convention on toxic waste."

The shipping company responsible, Hamburg Süd, which this year wants to sell its old ships, the Columbus Australia and Columbus America, to breakage companies in India or other Asian countries, is wholly owned by the Oetker group. At the end of March the Hamburg Süd shipping company was not prepared to talk to Greenpeace about the two old ships' whereabouts.

At the end of last year Greenpeace inspected a number of ships on a breakers' beach at Alang in India. These included a 27-year-old ship in Oetker's fleet, the Columbus New Zealand. Without safety provisions, hundreds of workers dismantled the ship to recover steel from it. Asbestos was removed by bare hands and without protective masks. In cutting the steel into pieces with manual welding equipment paints containing heavy metals were ignited, producing fumes extremely hazardous to health. Material from the ships which could not be used had oil poured over it and was burned on the beach. The workers there are exposed to toxic smoke and dusts containing asbestos, heavy metals and dioxins day and night – they have to live right next to where they work.

"We found large quantities of three kinds of asbestos on Oetker's ship, and there were extremely high concentrations of lead, arsenic and cadmium in the paints," says Greenpeace toxics expert, Judit Kanthak.

The owner of the Dr Oetker company, August Oetker, was in 1995 honoured as "eco-manager of the year" by the WWF and the publication, Capital, on account of his successful efforts at waste avoidance and environmentally-sound production. "Oetker would do best to give back the prize," says Bernstorff.

 

Editors please note:

Andreas Bernstorff can be reached under 0049 (0)172 4533770, Judit Kanthak under 0049 (0)171 8780824 and Michael Hopf, Press Officer, under 0049 (0)40 30618 345.

Photos and Beta-SP material on breaking of Oetker’s ship in India are also available. Internet information can be found at: www.greenpeace.de

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.
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