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TAIWAN CHEMICAL
GIANT ADMITS SHIPPED CONTAMINATED WASTE TO EUROPE
by AFP
TAIPEI, Taiwan, 3 March
2000 -- Taiwanese
petrochemical giant Formosa Plastics Corp. shipped
mercury-contaminated waste to an undisclosed European
country late last year, a company official said Friday. Some
300 tonnes of 2,700 tonnes of industrial waste orginally
dumped in Cambodia was shipped to Europe in December for
processing, spokesman Lin Sheng-kuan told AFP, but declined
to give further details.
The rest of the waste, currently stored at Taiwan's southern
port of Kaohsiung, was expected to be sent to a third
country by the end of April under a deadline set by
Taiwanese authorities, he said.
The waste was shipped back to Kaohsiung last year after an
environmental scare at the company's dumping site near
Cambodia's southern coastal resort of Sihanoukville.
Health fears triggered a panicked exodus of several hundred
residents and two days of rioting after the deaths of at
least two people that were reportedly linked with the
waste.
Formosa Plastics had claimed the waste was non-toxic and its
mercury content within safe levels.
But Taiwanese authorities here insisted the waste be shipped
out of the country after the mercury levels were found to
exceed local safety standards.
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