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Press Release, US Embassy in Tokyo TOKYO, Japan, 17 April 2000 -- A shipment of waste material containing low levels of PCB's (polychlorinated biphenyls) from U.S military bases in Japan and sent to Canada for disposal is currently en route back to Japan. Upon arrival at Yokohama port, the forteen containers of waste material will be off-loaded and stored by the Defense Logistics Agency's Defense Reutilisation and Marketing Office (DRMO) in an appropriate and safe manner for no more than one month before they will be reshipped out of Japan. The 100 metric tones of carefully packed waste material consists of transformers, oil, circuit breakers and various debris, such as rags, contaminated with PCB's. Prior to shipment, the PCB level of the waste material was tested and was found to be less than 50 parts per million (PPM). This does not exceed levels permitted under the 1989 Basel Convention to which both the U.S and Japan are signatories. The decision to ship the waste from Japan was made because neither Japanese law nor DoD standards permit destruction of PCBs in Japan. Although PCB waste can be safely stored virtually indefinitely, storage space at Sagami Depot, where the waste has been kept, is limited. 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 |