#3511: Philadelphia ash found not harmful: Medard comments (fwd)

[Robert Corbett <bcorbett@netcom.com>]

From: A. =?iso-8859-1?Q?M=E9dard?= <amedard@gte.net>

> > I seem to remember reading about hundreds of residents of Gonaives
> who
> developped illnesses, and babies being born with birth defects around
> the
> time this was a hot topic.  After years of letting the ash sit on the
> coast
> of Haiti, they finally conclude that the ash is not toxic?  This is
> very
> suspicious to me. Anyone else?
> ______

That is    _exactly_    the very first thing that came to my mind when I
read the article.  The waste left Philadelphia on Sept 5, 1986, because
it was     _banned from_     Stateside landfills.  The Khian Sea - in
search of a dumping ground for this waste - was     _repeatedly turned
away_     by     _country after country_.    I recall it making
international news, big time!  Then, after nearly a year and a half, the
Khian Sea unloaded the "fertlizer" (why was it called "fertilizer" if
there was nothing wrong with it?) at Gonaives.    _Seven years_
later, Exeter Lab of the U.K. analyzed samples from the ash and found
_heavy metals with hazardous levels of lead and cadmium_. Samples of
_adjacent soil_    were analyzed and found that   _toxics_   had
_migrated into the environment_.   How, now, can this same waste that
was analyzed to contain   _cadmium, lead, and other heavy metals_
(which are well-documented as being the cause of a multitude of serious
health problems) be declared nontoxic?!?!  It most definitely sounds
suspicious to me!