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The Alcoa West Australian Saga
The health problems at Alcoa Alumina seem
to daily fill the Perth news "Fumes worry shuts Worsley burner".
Alcoa started their liquor burning plant in
1996, which immediately "provoked dozens of complaints from workers and
residents affected by its fumes." (West Australian 1st June 2002).
It is reported, the process produces large
volumes of toxic pollutants including the known carcinogen benzene (fluoride
is not mentioned any more even though it is recorded in State and
Commonwealth official data).
Some of the West Australian headings
of articles on problems with "harmful emissions":
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HUMAN ALARM SYSTEM
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11.4.02
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ALCOA IN $3
MILLION PAYOUT OFFER TO SICK WORKERS
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2.5.02
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RESIDENTS LOOK TO
CLASS ACTION AGAINST ALCOA |
3.5.02
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FUMES WORRY SHUT
DOWN WORSLEY BURNER |
1.6.02
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NO DECISION YET
OVER ALCOA CHEMICAL CLOUD |
8.6.02
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HIGHER CANCER
RATES AT ALCOA. HEALTH FEARS PROMPT ALCOA
WALKOUT |
28.6.02
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Large full page articles continue in Perth
media, but Victorian newspapers do not document such problems for public
news, wonder why, after all it is important industry and workers news.
The West Australian Parliament, the elected
representatives of the people, has really performed in a questionable manner
relating to the health of employees in West Australian heavy industries.
The West Australian published,
12.4.02, an article - HEAVY INDUSTRIES SLIP NET ON POLLUTION.
"The Alcoa alumina refineries at
Kwinana and Pinjarra are amongst industries established in the 1960's and
early 70's which still operate under old State Agreements Acts.
These acts pre date W.A.'s first
environmental laws of 1973.
Legal advice obtained by Environment
Minister, Judy Edwards, has confirmed that mines and refineries (Alcoa)
covered by these Acts remain legally exempt from the Environmental
Protection Act of 1986.
Other operations covered by the old
agreement are the Westfarmers' CS8P chemical plant at Kwinana, Dampier
Salt Mines at Lake MacLeod, near Carnarvon and Port Headland and BHP
Billiton iron ore mines in the Pilbara."
The minister explained that any attempt to
prosecute for breaching emission limits could be challenged successfully by
companies involved.
Whatever would be happening today in West
Australia if their quality honest, caring, newspaper The West Australian,
was not in existence!
Perhaps of importance to "fluoride
watchers" is that over the past six months, the word FLUORIDE has
disappeared from public statements of pollution, and replaced with other
chemical pollutants.
When did fluoride pollution cease in the
minds of those concerned in the web of deception?
This problem will not go away. Alcoa has
been ordered by County Court Judge Hicks, to pay medical costs of a former
employee diagnosed with bladder cancer 12 years after working at its Geelong
plant.
No wonder the W.A. problem is absent in
Victorian papers, Radio, TV!
The West Australian 2.5.02 in a
large heading announced:
"ALCOA IN $3 MILLION PAYOUT. OFFER TO SICK
WORKERS"
It just will not go a way unless The
West Australian is closed!! See past articles on fluoride emissions at
Alcoa refinery and its famous red mud story.
SOUTH AFRICA
Nuclear plant to supply fluoride
for water
By Tony Carnie, Sunday
Independent, June 29 2002.
The following is an extended version of
Tony Carnie's article which appeared in the June 30 edition of The Sunday
Tribune.
When pressed by The Tribune, he (Oral
Health Director Dr Johan Smit) disclosed that most chemicals would most
likely come from Pelchem, which is a subsidiary of the Nuclear Energy
Corporation of South Africa (NECSA), located in the Pelindaba nuclear
complex west of Pretoria.
Though aluminium smelting and fertiliser
companies in South Africa produce large quantities of fluoride as a waste
product, Pelchem is believed to be the only local company able to supply
enough fluoride for the nationwide water dosing campaign. (Emphasis added)
For any other major pollutant, it would
be inconceivable that a government could propose compulsorily administering
a waste nuclear by-product to their whole population. Yet with fluorides,
the protected pollutant, anything goes. Ed.
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