Environmental Justice Case Study:
Thor Chemicals and Mercury
Exposure in Cato-Ridge, South Africa
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Recent investigation into the
international shipping of hazardous wastes has focused attention on South
Africa. In the eastern province of
Kwazulu-Natal, Thor Chemicals, Inc. of Great Britain has been accused of
poisoning workers and putting surrounding communities at risk from mercury
exposure. Mercury-waste shipments from
other countries have been received there at the plant in Cato-Ridge; these
“exports and pollution around Thor were disclosed . . .as part of an
investigation of toxic waste trafficking” (Lambrecht 17A)
Thor
was receiving these shipments as part of their mercury recycling program;
however, it was during the investigation by US journalists in 1989 that the
breadth and severity of the resultant pollution came to light. Water samples, taken from the Mngeweni River
behind Thor and analyzed for mercury, were found to contain 1.5 million parts
per billion (ppb) – 1500 times higher than the US limit for “sediment to be
declared toxic” (Lambrecht 1A). This
river flows into the Umgeni River, which winds through heavily populated areas
– all of which use the river for drinking water – and is the source of Durban’s
drinking water. Around the plant cattle
graze and drink from the river; just down the stream, people “drink from the
stream. . .play in the water, and people wash clothes in it. Corn, sweet potatoes and other food grow on
the rocky slopes leading to the stream”
(1A). Mercury levels were found
to be still 20 times the US limit as far as 40 miles downstream, near the
coastal city of Durban.
·
World
Health Organization
(Data compiled from Lambrecht 1A)
Soon
after the initial studies were publicized, evidence of actual human casualties
surfaced. In 1992 three workers were
found to be suffering from repeated, long-term mercury exposure; within months,
one had died and another was in a coma.
The third could no longer talk or walk.
Another 27 workers were injured by mercury poisoning while working. In response to rapidly-mounting public
pressure, South African officials initially ordered Thor to clean up the
pollution; soon after, they downplayed the potential threat, “saying that
mercury has diminished or disappeared downstream” (1A). One official of the Umgeni Water Board, Bill
Richards, said “If the United States is worried about those poor black people
at Cato Ridge, then your president should lift the sanctions and help improve
their standard of living” (1A).
Cato-Ridge
is a small, industrial village in the self-governing province of Kwazulu-Natal
(Kwazulu means land of the Zulu) in eastern South Africa.
Thor
Chemicals, Inc., owned by Thor Holdings of Manchester, England, “runs one of
the world’s largest mercury reclamation facilities” (Munnion 13) at
Cato-Ridge. Prior to Thor Chemicals’
move to South Africa in 1988, a mercury plant was operated, beginning in the
mid 70s, at Margate, Kent, England.
During the 1980s, concerns were first raised by the Health and Safety
Executive (HSE) “when allegations of excessive levels of mercury in the air and
in workers’ urine were investigated” (Mills 10). Threatened by prosecution by the HSE for over-exposure of workers
to mercury, Thor closed its plant in 1987, relocating to South Africa, where
untrained and unskilled Zulu-speaking labour was employed. Within a year the “local water board there
[in Natal] found high levels of mercury pollution in a nearby river” (Pallister
8).
While
the Thor plant in England was a mercury-production facility, the relocated
plant in Africa was a mercury-reclamation, or recycling, program. As one of the only facilities in the world
to form a large-scale mercury reclamation process, Thor quickly became target
for many international companies facing the dilemma of what to do with waste
mercury. Incineration being the primary
method for mercury disposal, it had largely been abandoned in most countries by
the late 80s, due to the organic-generation (PCBs, dioxin) air releases and
considerations of remaining ash disposal.
Thor Chemicals, Inc., operating in South Africa, was not faced with any
regulations in this regard, as environmental codes were lax.
Mercury,
an inorganic, is converted “by naturally occurring biological processes, into
the highly toxic methylmercury” (EPA x).
Since mercury is a metal, it does not degrade to simpler compounds; as
such, “it will always be present in the environment in one form or another”
(x). In addition to methylmercury being
more toxic, it easily bioaccumulates in tissues. Once in the tissues, it is a neurotoxin, affecting the central
nervous system (CNS). The symptoms of
mercury poisoning vary, depending on the level of exposure, having “effects mainly on the motor and sensory systems, especially
in the area of sensory-motor integration” (Mahaffey 397). Mercury poisoning
causes symptoms “such as trembling, loss of muscle control, headaches, mental
confusion, nausea and hair loss” (http://www.earthlife.org.za/campaigns/toxics/thor.htm). As exposure levels increase, so does the
likelihood of appearance of the following:
mental difficulties, impaired motor skills, tremors, coma and ultimately
– death.
·
Thor
Chemicals, Inc.
Thor
Chemicals, Inc., SA Ltd. is a British owned South African chemical company
“engaged in the manufacture and marketing of. . .biocides, textile auxiliaries
and metallic organic soaps” (Hoogervoorst 23).
When faced with initial findings of mercury-laden water leading from
Thor, Steven Van Der Vyer, plant manager, dismissed them, saying they were “an
isolated situation” (Lambrecht 1A); he blamed people from the area, “charging
that they had stolen mercury-contaminated drums and then washed them out in the
stream” (1A). Indeed, people in rural
communities consider the drums a commodity, each drum going for 70 rand
(approximately $9) each; drums are used to store water and maize, and for
cooking.
The
mercury, itself, that Thor Chemicals in Cato-Ridge was receiving contained high
levels of dangerous organic compounds:
“There are five mercury recycling plants in the USA but not one of them
would touch waste with an organic content . . .higher than 3%” (Albertyn
215). According to a company official,
Thor “received $1,100 a ton” (Lambrecht 1A) to take these materials “from
several countries” (1A). The mercury
waste that Cato-Ridge received contained organic contents “between 30 and 40%
by volume” (215). Working together,
“the profit motive and poor state control [enabled] Thor to cut health and
safety requirements to the extent that 28% of the workforce was diagnosed as
having mercury poisoning” (215).
·
Thor
Chemicals, Inc. Workers
The
workers of Thor Chemicals, Inc., were the front-line of victimization. Receiving R800 (approximately $110) a month,
they were uninformed of the potential dangers of and precautions to take
against mercury poisoning. Instead,
employees were either moved to another part of the factory or terminated: “[w]hen workers recorded high mercury
contamination levels they were advised to drink orange juice” (McGreal 14) in
order to expedite the excretion of excess mercury. One worker, Siphiwe Sibiya, ignored the incinerator clouds that
spread around him: “‘if you touched
your lips with your tongue or washed your face there was a bitter taste. My nails went black. Sometimes I would take off my mask to find
blood in it. Then my nose was bleeding,
my hands shaking’” (14).
·
American
Companies
Two of the largest contributors to Thor
Chemicals’ recycling program were American:
Borden Chemicals and Plastics and American Cyanamid Company. These two companies combined to produce on
average nearly 190 tons of mercury-related wastes annually (EPA 23); it was
this waste that was shipped to Cato-Ridge.
The mercury-waste compound, containing mercuric chloride, is used as a
catalyst in making plastics; when “about half the mercuric chloride in the catalyst
is used up, [it is shipped] to Thor, which heats the material to release the
mercury and uses it to manufacture more catalyst” (Schleifstein B3).
·
South
African Government
Initially,
the South African Government defended Thor Chemicals’ dealings, regarding the
imported mercury waste as a raw material, since Thor “recycles mercury
catalysts sold to overseas markets” (Cook 170). Under increasing pressure, the Umgeni Water Board began routine
water sampling, and ultimately “ordered Thor to exhume sediment and polluted
water” (Lambrecht 1A). Four months
later, the Department of Water Affairs ordered Thor to close for four weeks,
believing the source to be “from one of two plastic-lined, uncovered ponds
behind the plant that hold mercury-contaminated water” (1A). Shortly thereafter, “Thor was given a new
license to continue its operations” (Chenje 241). Despite continued investigation, in 1994, a secret memo from the
Department of Environmental Affairs to the cabinet surfaced, in which it was
declared that Thor Chemicals’ “sensible operations” in Natal demonstrated their
“‘sound’ work” (Koch 9).
·
Earthlife
Africa
Earthlife
Africa, an environmental organization, campaigned to expose Thor Chemicals’
pollution.
·
Greenpeace
International
Jim
Vallette, a Greenpeace analyst, led the American charge against Thor Chemicals,
raising American awareness.
The
overall ethnic makeup of South Africa consists of 75.2% black, 13.6% white, and
11.2% colored; in the Kwazulu-Natal province, the “Zulus people comprise about
300 tribes” (http://usaembassy.southafrica.net). Durban, the closest city to Cato-Ridge, is a
largely English-speaking area, with blacks living “in formal, low-income
townships or informal, rapidly growing settlements” (http://usaembassy.southafrica.net). Overall, the South African population is
young: 50.3% are younger than 15 years,
with the “largest numbers of young children found in Kwazulu-Natal” (http://www.gov.za/).
The
initial tactics employed in drawing attention to Thor Chemicals relied on
publicity, on both national and international settings. The first indication of injustice was
uncovered by the St. Louis Post Dispatch,
“investigating reports of pollution resulting from US waste shipments (Chenje
241). From the first findings of water
pollution, slowly, awareness began to grow.
Earthlife
Africa, working in tandem with Greenpeace International, began compiling
information on the activities and transgressions of Thor; beginning with
reconnaissance photography, the two environmental organizations began building
a case against Thor Chemicals and, later, the South African Government,
itself. By early 1992, following the
poisoning and deaths of the first two workers at Thor, Earthlife accused the
government of shielding Thor. Thor
documents, leaked to Earthlife Africa, workers were found to have mercury
concentrations “in their urine as high as 600 to 1,000 parts per billion. The international standard is 50 ppb”
(Pallister 8) The South African government, however, pointed out that the imports
did not fall “within the government’s definition of toxic waste” (Munnion
13). Earthlife countered that the
government “had allowed Thor to cloak its operations in secrecy, and said all
attempts to obtain and publish details of alleged pollution and human
contaminations had been obstructed” (13).
Protests against Thor spread to the US,
where its clients, American Cyanamid and Borden Chemicals were pressured by the
public and investigated by the federal government. Back in Cato-Ridge,
protestors held vigils and met a shipment at Durban, forcing it to turn away.
Following
the deaths of the three workers in 1992 and months of investigation, Thor
Chemicals was criminally charged by Great Britain for culpable homicide and
violations of the Machinery and Occupational Safety Act.
In
early 1994, a claim was filed against Thor Chemicals in the High Court in
London on behalf of the first three victims, alleging Thor Chemicals was
“negligent in allowing the transfer of a defective mercury production from
England to South Africa” (Pallister 8) and “failed to protect the workers from
the potentially deadly effects” (Mills 10) of mercury.
Of
all the strategies employed in focusing attention on Thor Chemicals’ conduct,
publicity proved to be the most instrumental; litigation and international
awareness both followed and resulted directly from the notoriety that publicity
provided.
The
increased international awareness that resulted from the pollution in
Cato-Ridge had far-reaching effects on the international trade of hazardous
wastes. Three months after the initial
revelations there, the “European Community formally agreed to ban hazardous
waste exports to 68 former European colonies around the world” (Lambrecht
1A). In addition, the Basel Convention,
a waste export treaty drawn up by the United Nations, had been signed by all
industrial nations except the US and New Zealand by 1994; while the treaty did
not “kick in [until] the end of 1997. . .[c]ountries that continue[d] to export
for recycling [were] subject to strict requirements; they must submit details
on the composition of the wastes, the methods of recycling and the destination
of residues or pollution from the recycling” (Lambrecht 1E).
The
US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) investigated both American Cyanamid
Co., in Bound Brook, New Jersey, and Borden Chemicals and Plastics, in Geismar,
Louisiana. In the months immediately
following disclosure of their role, American Cyanamid Co. filed to increase
their mercury shipments to Thor, to 29,000 pounds “of mercury waste rather than
20,000 to 24,000 as originally planned” (Lambrecht 1A). American Cyanamid finally stopped shipping
mercury wastes to Thor “in 1991 upon learning of problems of the plant”
(Zuckoff 11) – some two years later.
Borden Chemicals continued their mercury waste shipments until 1994,
only ceasing under pressure by environmental groups and the EPA in response to
a final shipment of 150 barrels to South Africa, which were ultimately
recalled. Following a five-year
investigation, the Department of Justice (DOJ) decided not to file “criminal
charges against Borden Chemicals and Plastics for shipping mercury-laden
catalyst waste to South Africa” (Foster 9).
The decision was made when it was found that the “evidence [did] not
show flagrant intent to violate the law” (9).
However, Borden Chemicals’ Geismar, Louisiana plant was fined $3.6
million and ordered to clean up a spill there, related to their overseas’ shipments.
After
being criminally charged with culpable homicide and violations of the Machinery
and Occupational Safety Act, Thor Chemicals pleaded guilty before an English
court to lesser charges of negligence and were fined R14,500 (approximately
$3900). To date, this is the soul
penalty imposed by a government (English or South African) on Thor Chemicals,
Inc.
The civil claim filed against Thor
Chemicals in 1994 on behalf of the first three victims underwent extensive
legal contention; Thor Chemicals’ lawyers fought to have the suit heard in South
Africa, for two reasons: under “South
African law [individuals] are prohibited from suing employers” (Mills 10); and
South African “safety legislation is less advanced than in Britain” (www.mg.co.az).
Three years later, in 1997, Thor Chemicals settled out of court, paying
R14.3 million ($2.1 million) in “claims by 20 South African workers for the
effects of mercury poisoning suffered at is plant” (Schoonakker 13). Less than a year later, in 1998, an
additional claim – this time on behalf of 20 workers – was filed against Thor,
for unspecified damages and in response to continued poor safety practices
there. Obtaining Thor medical records,
Mark Colvin (Medical Research Council) said “‘the workers were frequently exposed
to two to three times . . . with some workers exposed to above seven and even
12 times the WHO (World Health Organization) level’” (Eveleth www.mg.co.az). Soon after filing of the claim, Thor shifted
its assets to a newly formed company called Tato Holdings. This transfer reduced Thor’s net assets from
about $28 million to $3.6 million and evoked charges of corrupt business
charges. In October of 2000, Thor
Chemical Holdings agreed to pay the workers “about R2.7 million [about
$353,000]” in an out-of-court settlement, “after they allegedly sustained
mercury poisoning” (Bubesi 3) at the Cato-Ridge factory. In both civil cases Thor Chemicals settled
with no admission of liability.
Thor
Chemicals, Inc. announced the closing of the plant in 1992. The closing would be effective in 1996,
after which no more mercury-waste would be accepted. In 1994 the Department of Environmental Affairs toured the site,
finding 10,000 drums of mercury-waste stored in a warehouse; these findings led
to charges that the company never intended to recycle the waste and were,
instead, merely stockpiling it. The
barrels were improperly stored and many were leaking. In response, Parliament set up “an urgent investigation after
‘losing patience’ with Thor. . .for the long delay in resolving problems caused
by leakage of mercury-containing waste from storage drums and resultant soil
contamination” (Greybe www.mg.co.az). In June of 2000, the USEPA was invited by
South Africa’s Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism to tour the Thor
Chemicals processing plant, “to allow US pollution experts an opportunity to
suggest methods for cleaning up mercury poisoning” (Arenstein www.africa.com). What they found there shocked them. One observer, environmentalist Thabo Madihlaba, said “[the]
(fumes) inside the warehouses are deadly. . .storage drums are rotten and freely
leak toxic waste, while the storage system is so bad that you cannot tell what
is in the different drums” (Arenstein www.africa.com). Environmental impact reports, conducted
during the visit, found “lethal mercury waste was still leaching into the water
table and a nearby spring used by surrounding villages” (Arenstein www.africa.com).
As
of December, 2000, the mercury wastes are still stockpiled at Thor Chemicals,
Inc., in Cato-Ridge. Going forward with
the recycling is no longer financially feasible, and processing “‘will cause
even more environmental hazards and public health problems than those that
closed the plant’” (Arenstein www.africa.com). The USEPA is working with South Africa’s
Department of Environmental Affairs to “‘develop a coherent hazardous waste
clean-up programme’” (Arenstein www.africa.com). Meanwhile, the South African government
grapples with the public relations dilemma of adopting a ‘return to sender’
policy, ordering the wastes back to their respective points of origin.
In
talking with Mr. Orlando Carrazedo, via email, I found a source that had had
experience within the South African Textile Chemical Industry, “of which Thor
is one of many suppliers” (Carrazedo 11/19/00). Mr. Carrazedo indicated that a pervading veil of ignorance, on
the part of the employees and surrounding communities, coupled with mistakes
made by Thor, resulted in “consequences which do not lend themselves to
simplistic ‘blame apportioning’” (Carrazedo 11/28/00). In particular, the workers, lacking
knowledge of potential dangers, chose not to wear protective clothing. In addition, the difficulties of security in
protecting containers resulted in many barrel thefts and self-poisoning – this
was due to the drums’ being a “valuable resource” in the “infrastructural
context of minimal rural piped water facilities” (Carrazedo 11/28/00). In summation, Mr. Carrazedo felt these
circumstances, taking into account their occurrence in a Third World
environment, “limitations of resources, expertise and regulatory uniformities,
when impacted both by cultural and profit maximisation factors” (Carrazedo
11/28/00) result in issues that are not always readily explicit.
Back to Table of
Contents
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