SB: what is your plaster made from?

[Katey <newtribe@directvinternet.com>]

Below is an article on the "cement" manufacturing industry.  Not exactly on-topic,
but not off-topic either.  I have been trying to locate the articles i found on fly
ash containing dioxins and PAHs, but i haven't relocated them yet - still looking.


Global Greenwashers
                                 By Lucy Komisar, Pacific News Service
                                 August 26, 2002

                                 Along with environmentalists and community
activists, big business has
                                 descended upon Johannesburg, South Africa, to tout
its own "green"
                                 growth strategies in the summit on Earth-friendly
development. But if the
                                 environmental record of one key corporate player is
any indication, the
                                 overtures are pure "greenwash."

                                 Stephan Schmidheiny, a Swiss, has fought
environmental regulation of
                                 business since the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de
Janeiro, when he
                                 founded the Business Council for Sustainable
Development, a coalition
                                 of 160 international companies including AOL Time
Warner, AT&T,
                                 Bayer, BP, Coca-Cola and Dow Chemical.

                                 The council, attending this week's World Summit on
Sustainable
                                 Development in Johannesburg, insists on voluntary
self-regulation, a
                                 strategy supported by the Bush administration.

                                 But the Schmidheiny family-controlled international
cement
                                 conglomerate Holcim has done more than fail at
self-regulation. Even
                                 while its U.S. plants have been fined repeatedly
for environmental
                                 violations, it has worked to weaken restrictions on
cement production
                                 emissions internationally.

                                 Holcim (formerly Holderbank Financiere Glaris Ltd.,
based in
                                 Switzerland) owns 15 U.S. cement factories that do
$1.2 billion in
                                 business per year. In August, Holcim's Midlothian,
TX, plant was fined
                                 $223,125 by state regulators for violating limits
on pollution, including
                                 toxic carbon monoxide, lung-damaging soot and
smog-causing
                                 compounds.

                                 A 1993 Environmental Protection Agency study
reported that people
                                 living near cement plants may inhale harmful
airborne dioxins, arsenic,
                                 cadmium, chromium, thallium, and lead at levels
that might cause cancer
                                 or other diseases. Such emissions are especially
dangerous to children,
                                 the elderly and people with heart and lung
conditions.

                                 Holcim had promised in 1997 that despite the
expansion of the Texas
                                 plant, new technology would result in cleaner air.
It was granted permits
                                 to double production.

                                 But emissions went up, not down. Residents near the
plant reported a
                                 high incidence of cancer as well as illnesses among
farm animals. The
                                 pollution affected the entire Dallas-Ft. Worth
region.

                                 Local regulators said the plant had not installed
equipment promised in
                                 the permit application, made changes that increased
air pollution, and
                                 then lied in emissions reports for nine years.

                                 They called Holcim a "high priority
violator/significant non-complier."

                                 Now, St. Lawrence Cement, a Canadian company
controlled by
                                 Holcim, is seeking permission to build what may be
the largest cement
                                 factory in the United States on the Hudson River in
New York.
                                 Environmentalists say the plant's 404-foot stack
would discharge
                                 respiratory disease-causing soot over a large part
of the Hudson Valley.

                                 The Schmidheiny family's concrete factories have a
long history of
                                 environmental violations:

                                 • In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) fined the
                                 Holnam Holly Hill Plant in South Carolina $838,850
for failing to
                                 comply with air emission standards. (Holcim's U.S.
operation formerly
                                 was called Holnam, for Holderbank North America.)

                                 • Also in 1993, the Texas Air Control Board fined
the Midlothian plant
                                 $135,000 after discovering emissions were about 50
percent higher than
                                 allowable.

                                 • In 1994, the company's Clarksville, Missouri,
plant, which began
                                 burning hazardous waste in 1986, paid a $100,874
fine for violations
                                 ranging from failing to analyze waste to keeping
waste in open
                                 containers.

                                 • In 1999, Iowa state officials found that the
company failed to report
                                 excess emissions.

                                 • Also in 1999, the Michigan Department of
Environmental Quality fined
                                 the Holnam plant in Dundee $576,500 for emissions
7.5 times the
                                 allowable limits.

                                 • In 2000, the company was fined because a coal
mill and dryer stack at
                                 its LaPorte, Colorado, plant was releasing twice as
much pollution as
                                 permitted. Its Florence plant had failed
air-pollution tests three times
                                 since 1996.

                                 Holcim spokesman Tom Chizmadia the violations were
not "willful" and
                                 that the company's "intent is to comply with all
standards." Asked about
                                 the violations on record, Chizmadia said, "limits
are set with an intention
                                 of protecting environment and health, and those
limits are set very low."

                                 Cement production air pollution became more
dangerous after the EPA
                                 banned certain hazardous waste from landfills in
1985 and allowed it to
                                 be burned in cement kilns. Marti Sinclair, co-chair
of environmental
                                 quality strategy for the Sierra Club, said that to
avoid problems in cities
                                 with political influence and access to the media,
Congress set a low
                                 population limit on places where waste could be
burned. "Holnam went
                                 to the Deep South and started burning hazardous
waste in Black
                                 communities in Alabama, Mississippi and South
Carolina," she said.

                                 Environmentalists say that the burning process
releases into the air
                                 deadly dioxins and PCBs, carcinogenic chemicals
that may cause birth
                                 defects, including mental and physical retardation.

                                 The Business Council for Sustainable Development
has picked the
                                 Johannesburg summit to argue its self-regulation
position in a new book,
                                 "Walking the Talk," by Schmidheiny, Charles O.
Holliday Jr., CEO of
                                 DuPont, and Philip Watts, chairman of the Royal
Dutch Shell Group.
                                 Set for launching at the summit, the book maintains
that multinationals
                                 have kept the commitments made in Rio.

                                 Lucy Komisar is a freelance investigative reporter
based in New
                                 York City.


--
Katey Culver
ecoville architechs
www.ecoarchitech.net
RecycleSource,Inc
newtribe@directvinternet.com

Let's live on this planet as if we intend to stay



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