Norway: Oil and Gas Production Halted over Safety Issues
Norsk Hydro halted construction work at the Nyhamna Gas Terminal on 10th October 2006 following an aircraft accident at Stord in which 12 out of 14 passengers onboard were killed. The plane was carrying project workers from Stavanger on their way to work in Nyhamna, where Norsk Hydro is developing the Ormen Lange gas field. The aircraft, an Atlantic Airways BAE-146/200, overran the end of the runway when landing at Stord.
The Nyhamna terminal lies at one end of the Langeled pipeline, the world's longest underwater pipeline at 1,200 km, designed to bring Norwegian natural gas from the Ormen Lange field to the UK.
At the same time, the Norwegian Petroleum Safety Authority ordered the closure of the Statoil Snorre A platform and the Shell Draugen facility after the discovery of faulty lifeboats. Taking the ageing installations offline while repairs and maintenance were undertaken was expected to result in the loss of 280,000 barrels of oil production per day, representing 13% of Norwegian output, for around two weeks.
International: EU List of Unsafe Airlines Continues to Grow
Following a series of fatal air crashes, the European Union published in March 2006 a list of unsafe airlines that are banned from its skies because of safety risks. The companies on the list, which is based on reports by the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC), face either a full or partial ban from flying in the European Union until they have dispelled safety concerns. The European Commission encourages banned airlines to boost their safety standards to levels that would allow their readmittance.
The EU system is similar to that operational in the United States, where would-be passengers can consult a website publishing the names of airlines with relatively poor safety records.
The EU blacklist now includes 92 passenger and cargo airlines, based mostly in Africa, including all but one of the 51 carriers operating from the Democratic Republic of Congo and all airlines from Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Swaziland. Also on the list are Phuket Airlines of Thailand and Pulkovo Aviation Enterprise, the third-largest Russian passenger carrier, which is about to merge with another Russian carrier, Rossia.
In mid-October 2006, the EU announced that two more Central Asian airlines had been banned for safety reasons, meaning that in total four Kyrgyzstan airlines, Sky Gate International Aviation, Star Jet, Phoenix Aviation and Reem Air, are now no longer authorised to enter European airspace. Two Kazakhstan air carriers, BGB Air and GST Aero Air, are also on the EU banned list.
Canada: Lack of Safety Management Leads to Death of Forklift Operator
The Canadian company, Forwell Materials Inc., was fined Canadian $75,000 after pleading guilty to health and safety breaches at the Ontario Court of Justice over the death of one of its workers in March 2005.
The employee at the Cambridge plant had entered a palletiser, a type of forklift truck which stacks bags on pallets by raising and lowering them on its forks, when it suddenly rose, trapping and crushing him with its forks. A part of the load had fallen and the operator attempted a manual reload, but when he did so he blocked a light sensor controlling vertical load movement, causing the forks to rise.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the palletiser was not locked-out prior to the worker's entry, that the company had provided training on lockout procedure to the worker on several occasions prior to the incident, and the worker who died had been disciplined previously over failure to observe machinery lockout.
However, Forwell Materials was charged and pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to ensure lockout procedures for the palletiser were followed as required by S.76 of the Regulations for Industrial Establishments.
International: World Health Authority Sets Targets for Air Pollution
On 5th October 2006, the World Health Organisation (WHO) issued global targets for cutting air pollution, with the objective of saving at least two million people from early death each year if the targets are met.
The WHO targets demand that levels of fine particulates from traffic, industry and burning of fossil fuels be cut to one third of present levels, especially in highly polluted cities such as Beijing in China and New Delhi in India. Premature deaths in more polluted cities from this cause could be reduced by 15 to 20%, as there is unequivocal and consistent evidence that such particles are harmful, not only to the lungs but also to the heart.
The WHO also want big cuts in most other air pollutants, including ozone and sulphur dioxide.
USA: Barge Strikes Underwater Gas Pipeline
An oilfield maintenance tugboat towing two barges around four kilometres offshore struck an underwater gas pipeline belonging to Gulfport Energy Corp. on 13th October 2006 in West Cote Blanche Bay, southern Louisiana, triggering an explosion that killed three, severely burned one and left three others missing. One of the barges held chemically treated lumber and the other a mechanical crane and fuel. When the barge struck the gas line the resulting massive explosion sent flames up to 60 metres high and several hundred metres wide, according to officials.
Two crew members were rescued but despite a 36-hour helicopter search, the three missing crew were not recovered. Rescue crews were unable to go below deck on the barge due to intense heat and smoke. Later, the Department of Environmental Quality and Louisiana State Police HAZMAT inspected the barge but found no survivors.
As a precaution, Gulfport temporarily shut-in all production from the West Cote Blanche Bay field, although no damage had been reported to its production facilities there. The US Coast Guard and National Transportation and Safety Board began an investigation into how the incident occurred, stating initially they believed that it may have been the result of a piling which fell from one of the barges and struck a submerged high-pressure gas line, causing the line to rupture and catch fire.
Dubai: Project Director Sentenced for Deaths of Nine Construction Workers
In 2002, nine construction workers were killed when the roof of a desalination plant, under construction for the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) in Jebel Ali, collapsed. Four people involved with the design, engineering and construction of the desalination station were charged over the deaths of the workers, but in October 2006 three of them were acquitted.
The Dubai Court of First Instance found that a senior employee of the German company, Fichtner Consulting Engineering, who was the project director, had neglected his duties by not holding periodic meetings to review the work process and discuss any design amendments. He had also failed to verify onsite supervision, failed to co-ordinate between the parties on site and did not confirm that all blueprints and accounts had been approved by authorities, including Dubai Municipality and Civil Defence.
The accused was sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of negligence and ordered to pay the sum of US $73,512 (AED270,000) as blood money to the families of the victims.
Algeria: Gas Pipeline Explosion Injures 78
On 18th October 2006, 78 people were injured, one seriously, in a gas pipeline explosion near Bekhaitia, in the district of Mohammadia around 300 kilometres west of Algiers. The Algerian press speculated that the cause of the explosion was due to a corrosion rupture, but the pipeline has also been attacked recently by saboteurs. It runs between the gas fields of Hassi R'Mel in the Sahara and the coastal town of Arzew and is the main Algerian hydrocarbon export outlet. Engineers took three hours to bring the fire under control and begin a repair operation.
Ivory Coast: UN to Assess Impact of Dumped Toxic Waste
On 23rd October 2006, the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs announced that the UN World Health Organisation (WHO) and UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) are collaborating with the Côte d'Ivoire Government in investigating the severity and extent of ill-health and other effects arising from the incident in August when the vessel "Probo Koala" unlawfully unloaded nearly 600 tonnes of petrochemical waste into trucks, which was then dumped in 17 sites around Abidjan, a city of four million people. Twelve citizens have now died from the effects of the toxic waste and 104,000 others have sought medical care. See item in the Autumn 2006 Newsletter, Ivory Coast: Dumped Toxic Sludge Poisons 9,000 People.
The study will include possible effects on the food chain from the waste, which contained a mixture of petroleum distillates, hydrogen sulphide, mercaptans, phenolic compounds and sodium hydroxide.
The reported symptoms of the poisoning included nosebleeds, nausea and vomiting, headaches, skin and eye irritation and respiratory distress. The most severely affected were suffering respiratory distress, dehydration and intestinal bleeding.
The UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) has determined that the dumping was clearly a crime, although who was responsible and the actual nature of the crime has yet to be determined. Following a formal request from the Ivorian Government, UNEP is conducting an investigation through the Secretariat of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal, which it administers.
In Amsterdam, legal representatives of the Ivorian victims demanded damages from the Dutch-based oil trading company, Trafigura Beheer BV, which chartered the tanker that carried the waste. The company, which has an estimated annual turnover of US $45 billion, denies any wrongdoing and said it ceased to bear legal responsibility for the waste when it passed it over to a local disposal company in Africa. The ship itself is still impounded in Estonia where the operators face criminal proceedings.
The first load of the dumped toxic waste was shipped out of the West African country in sealed containers on 27th October 2006, bound for a treatment plant in France. More than 140 reinforced containers carrying a mixture of the waste and contaminated earth were loaded onto the French-registered container ship "Toucan" for a ten-day journey to Europe. Tredi International, a French company which specialises in dealing with hazardous waste, is carrying out the clean-up operation.
Canada: Demolition Company Fined after Roof Collapse
On 25th October 2006, the Canadian company, Priestly Demolition Inc., was fined $200,000 after pleading guilty to failing to take the reasonable precaution of ensuring competent inspection was carried out on the Uptown Theatre building in Toronto prior to a roof collapse which killed one person and injured 17 others, none of whom were on the site.
The accident took place when a worker using high-reach mechanical shears cut through a key structural component of the roof of the building, leading to a catastrophic collapse. Debris fell onto surrounding occupied buildings, which included the Yorkville English Academy where most of the casualties were students, and the Bank of Nova Scotia where the rest of the injured were working.
The operator of the shears was unaware of the nature of the internal roof structure and his employer had failed to properly inspect the structure.
Bahrain: Fatal Scaffold Collapse
On 22nd October 2006, two Indian construction workers fell six floors when scaffolding collapsed at the Tameer Residence apartment block site in Sanabis, Bahrain. One worker was killed and the other suffered critical multiple injuries.
Both men were employees of UBFI, part of the Bahrain-based Bramco Group, and were working under subcontract to Al Hedaya Contractors. The men were finishing off grill work and when they got on the scaffolding it collapsed because somebody had removed its support. Both the employing companies denied responsibility for the accident.
Scaffolding is part of a safety-critical system and should be inspected every day by a competent person, because it is liable to sustain damage or stress as part of its normal use.
USA: Wal-Mart in Trouble over Working Hours and Other Issues
A class action against the largest retailer in the world, Wal-Mart, was brought by 187,000 workers who were employed by them between March 1997 and May 2006. The jury trial took place recently in a Pennsylvania court and concerned claims for compensation over breaches of state law in that the company refused to pay its employees for work performed during rest breaks. It was alleged that the company created and implemented a system in which its hourly-paid employees were obliged to work unpaid during their rest breaks.
The jury found that the retailer had not denied staff their meal breaks, but had denied them rest breaks. The company was ordered to pay at least $78 million in compensation to those who were forced to work.
In December 2005, a California court ordered Wal-Mart to pay $172 million in compensation to 116,000 employees who had been denied meal breaks. Wal-Mart currently faces more than 57 lawsuits for wage and hour abuses in 40 American states. It is also the subject of the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in US history, affecting more than two million current and former female Wal-Mart workers who are suing over pay and promotion discrimination.
USA: Organisational Factors in the BP Texas City Refinery Disaster
The on-going US Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation into the Texas City disaster has revealed that internal BP documents prepared between 2002 and 2005 demonstrated management knowledge of significant safety problems at the Texas City refinery and at 34 other BP business units around the world, months or years prior to the March 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers, injured 180 others, and was the worst US industrial accident in more than a decade.
The CSB found that BP's global management were aware of problems with maintenance, spending and infrastructure well before March 2005. The company did respond with a variety of measures aimed at improving safety, but the focus of many of their initiatives was on improving procedural compliance and reducing occupational injury rates, while catastrophic safety risks remained. Unsafe and antiquated equipment designs were left in place, and unacceptable deficiencies in preventative maintenance were tolerated.
Earlier findings disclosed that the equipment directly involved in the flammable release on 23rd March was of an obsolete design already phased out in most refineries and chemical plants, and that key pieces of instrumentation were either known to be not working or known to be unreliable by unit supervisors. The March accident occurred during the startup of the octane-boosting isomerisation (ISOM) unit, when a distillation tower and attached blowdown drum were overfilled with highly flammable liquid hydrocarbons. Because the blowdown drum vented directly to the atmosphere, there was a geyser-like release of highly flammable liquid and vapour onto the grounds of the refinery, causing a series of explosions and fires. Fatalities and injuries occurred in and around work trailers that were placed too near the ISOM unit and were not evacuated prior to the startup. Alarms and gauges that should have warned of the overfilling equipment failed to operate properly on the day of the accident. The CSB said that since last October their investigation had uncovered additional previous incidents between 1994 and 2004 involving the same ISOM unit blowdown drum, which was designed in the 1950s.
The CSB stated that stringent budget cuts throughout the BP system caused a progressive deterioration in safety standards at the Texas City refinery. BP implemented a 25% cut on fixed costs from 1998 to 2000 which adversely impacted upon maintenance expenditures and infrastructure at the refinery. Maintenance spending fell throughout the 1990s at the then Amoco refinery, and following the merger with BP further cuts were imposed. In addition, the Texas City central training staff was reduced from 30 people in 1997 to eight in 2004, and the training department budget was cut in half from 1998 to 2004. Trainers were given other duties, so that some spent little time on actual training. For example, the ISOM trainer spent only 5% of his time on training. Control board operator positions were downsized and workloads were increased. Four open process safety co-ordinator positions for the ISOM and other area process units were not filled prior to the incident. Operator fatigue and a lack of effective training and supervision were all cited in earlier CSB preliminary findings describing the causes of the unsafe startup on 23rd March.
The CSB commented that every successful corporation must contain its costs, but at an aging facility like Texas City it is not responsible to cut budgets related to safety and maintenance without thoroughly examining the impact on the risk of a catastrophic accident.
Canada: Site Supervisor Gaoled for Falsifying Accident Evidence
At the end of October 2006, a supervisor employed by Peaks and Valleys Contracting was imprisoned for 30 days after being found guilty by a court in Kingston, Ontario, of a charge that he strapped a safety harness on an injured worker after the man had fallen three storeys onto a dump truck on a site in Edmonton. The injured man, who was removing shingles from a roof, had only just begun work on the day of the accident in September 2004. An investigation by the Ministry of Labour established that he was not wearing a safety harness when he fell.
The supervisor pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to ensure that fall protection was being worn and KB Home Insulation, the site owner who hired Peaks and Valleys Contracting, was also fined Canadian $43,000 for failing to ensure fall protection was being worn and failing to provide adequate training in the use of fall protection equipment.
China: 19 Injured in Coal Mine Explosion
On 31st October 2006, an underground explosion took place at the Weijiadi Coal Mine in Baiyin City, about 100 kilometres north-west of Lanzhou, the provincial capital of Gansu. The mine is owned by the Jingyuan Coal Industry Corporation. Nineteen miners were injured, six with serious burns and fractures. More than 60 doctors from surrounding hospitals were called in to treat the injured miners.
The State Administration of Coal Mine Safety has begun an investigation into the incident. Initial enquiries suggested that miners were checking the ventilation system when the explosion took place.
In a separate incident, 16 coal miners were trapped underground after a landslide in the same province on the same day.
Coal mine accidents in China killed 2,900 people in the first eight months of 2006 and 5,986 in 2005, according to the State Administration of Work Safety.
USA: Chromium Exposure Limit Challenge Settled, or Maybe Not
The strange affair in America over the high-risk human carcinogen hexavalent chromium has continued, with the US Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) becoming involved with a legal challenge to their new exposure standard by the Surface Finishing Industry Council (SFIC), the Public Citizen Health Research Group, and the United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing, Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International Union. See the Summer 2006 Newsletter item, International: Fraudulent Chrome Cancer Study Exposed; and the Spring 2006 Newsletter item, USA: Controversy over New Chromium Exposure Limit.
OSHA amended its final rule on hexavalent chromium in the October 30 Federal Register as part of a settlement agreement with the challenging parties. The agreement creates an optional, alternative compliance timetable for metal and surface finishing operations at eligible facilities.
Romania: Three Workers Killed in Oil Refinery Explosion
On 1st November 2006, three employees died in an explosion at the RAFO oil refinery in Onesti, eastern Romania. An accumulation of gas blew out of a catalytic cracking installation which had just been restarted after weeks of repair work. The workers were standing near an oven where raw material is preheated before production. When the burners were restarted the blast took place. The incident is being investigated by police officers and officials of the Labour Protection Inspectorate.
International: Preventing Marine Corrosion with a Mud Battery
A report by an Argentinian research team published in the journal Environmental Science and Technology describes the use of microbes which live in marine mud as an anti-corrosion agent. The reference is Orfei, L. H., et al, 2006, Environ Sci Technol, 40, 6473 - 6478.
Although microbial degradation destroys steel, microbes might also be used to protect ships, buoys, oil rigs and other steel objects in marine waters from rust by plugging them into the seabed. The researchers achieved this trick by turning marine mud into a battery which can suppress corrosion by charging up stainless steel. The energy source is free, clean and for practical purposes inexhaustible.
The chromium in stainless steel makes it much more resistant to corrosion than ordinary steel, but structures submerged in seawater are rapidly coated by a layer of bacteria and algae, whose metabolic electrochemical reactions erode the metal. The process is usually suppressed by fitting a sacrificial metal to the structure, which supplies the steel surface with negatively charged electrons. However, the sacrificial metal always corrodes and must be replaced periodically, sometimes presenting a hazardous operation.
The team at the National University of Mar del Plata created microbial batteries by inserting electrodes into ocean sediments as an ideal source of electrons. The microbes extract electrons from sulphide mineral particles in their mud environment and use them in metabolic reactions which release energy. The electrons are then passed onto an electron acceptor, usually oxygen. However, in the microbial battery the electrons are shunted onto an electrode, producing a very small electrical current which is quite adequate for corrosion protection purposes.
The technique has so far been tested only under laboratory tank conditions, using locally collected seawater and sediment from Mar del Plata, near Buenos Aires. The battery electrodes were rods of graphite, simply stuck in the mud. They were wired to plates of stainless steel partly immersed in seawater. Those plates lacking any corrosion protection became heavily pitted after around four months, but those hooked up to the biobattery showed no signs of corrosion. In theory, such an anti-corrosion system should require minimal maintenance with a very low cost.
USA: Valero Refinery Asphyxiation Accident
The US Chemical Safety Board published a case study report in November 2006 dealing with their investigation into the deaths of two workers who were suffocated inside a nitrogen-filled confined space at the Valero Energy Corporation Refinery in Delaware City during a night shift in November 2005.
The dead men were employed by a contractor, Matrix Service Industrial Contractors Inc., and were engaged in reinstalling a large pipe elbow on top of a hydrocracker reactor pressure vessel. The uninstalled pipe left an opening on a work platform 60 cm in diameter, surrounded by 60 cm high steel bolts. The reactor was undergoing a nitrogen purge to remove oxygen and hazardous gas from the equipment.
When the workers noticed a roll of duct tape lying inside the reactor on a tray less than two metres below the opening, they decided to try to retrieve it using a long wire hook. In order to enter the vessel to retrieve the tape under Valero safe work rules they would have been required to call in a specially equipped and trained crew, because the vessel was a confined space subject to permit-to-work entry as defined by OSHA. That would have delayed the elbow reassembly by many hours, and the job was urgent. Their hooking attempts failed and one of the workers decided to enter the vessel in breach of safety rules. He collapsed almost immediately in the nitrogen atmosphere, next to the duct tape he was trying to reach. His co-worker then attempted a rescue by inserting a ladder through the opening and climbing inside, where he too was overcome and suffocated.
The CSB described the accident as yet another example of an improper entry into a confined space by workers who were not adequately warned that hazardous atmospheres might exist around unsealed confined space openings. There have been many incidents where would-be rescuers have become casualties themselves because they acted on emotion rather than on their training. The CSB Case Study on Valero underscores the importance of strict safeguards when working around low-oxygen environments. Workers are in danger not only inside confined spaces, but also around the opening where inert gases like nitrogen are flowing out.
USA: Three Mile Island Suffers Automatic Shutdown
The Three Mile Island nuclear plant, about 10 miles south-east of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, is notorious as the site of the worst American nuclear accident. In March 1979, the Unit 2 reactor underwent a partial meltdown.
On 2nd November 2006, a faulty instrument reading triggered an automatic shutdown in the plant, the first since 1997. There was reported to be no release of radiation and local power failures were not expected as other plants in the regional grid could make up shortages. The plant is operated by AmerGen Energy Co. LLC. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken an interest in the incident.
France: Workers Electrocuted in Mobile Elevating Work Platform
Two French municipal workers were electrocuted on 5th November 2006 while they were installing a display of decorative seasonal coloured street light bulbs in Houppeville, Rouen, in the Seine-Maritime region of France. The two men were working in a mobile elevating work platform (MEWP) when the metal materials they were handling came into contact with a nearby 20 kV overhead power line.
The risk of electrocution from overhead power lines when working at height in such an item of mobile equipment is very high and a risk assessment should have been made beforehand as a priority.
Kuwait: Explosion Closes Oil Refinery
On 4th November 2006, an explosion caused by a technical malfunction took place in one of the heavy oil processing lines at the Kuwait National Petroleum Company Shuaiba refinery, which lies around 45 km south of Kuwait City. A fire followed and the heavy oil unit was shut down, along with the temporary closure of other units as a precautionary measure. There were no injuries during the incident and most of the plant was expected to be operational again after three days. Production at the refinery, built in 1969 and the smallest of three Kuwaiti oil facilities, was cut from 200,000 barrels a day to around 120,000 barrels a day. The now closed heavy oil unit had a production capacity of 25,000 barrels a day. The Shuaiba refinery is due to be replaced within four years by a much larger installation.
Kuwait pumps around 2.6 million barrels a day. Its refineries have a combined refining capacity of 915,000 barrels a day.
New Zealand: Worker Loses an Arm in a Cement Mixer
In early November 2006, the company Jaxxon Concrete Pumps were fined NZ $14,000 by a court after pleading guilty to failing to provide a safe workplace. The prosecution followed an accident at a site in Tauranga in which an employee's arm was partially severed while he was cleaning the hopper of an electric concrete pump.
The man had begun to clean the hopper while the blades were still in motion. His gloved hand became snagged and his arm was severed just below the elbow. The worker had failed to follow correct procedure by locking out with the control lever in neutral, but an accident investigation found that a guard was missing on top of the hopper and no safety switch was installed. The worker now has to face prosthetic surgery or a further amputation of the remaining arm section below his elbow.
Malaysia: Workers Rescued after Offshore Helicopter Crash
At mid-morning on 5th November 2006, a Super Puma helicopter, owned by Malaysian Helicopter Services Aviation Bhd and chartered by ExxonMobil Exploration and Production Malaysia Inc., crashed into the sea off Malaysia while carrying 19 oil rig workers to the Tapis B platform, about 103 nautical miles off Dungun. All the passengers were rescued from the sea, together with the co-pilot, but the pilot drowned and his body was recovered the next day by a mini-submarine, normally used for oil exploration. The survivors, three of whom were injured, were rescued by workers from the oil platform.
ExxonMobil announced that it had grounded all Super Puma helicopters used for its operations in Malaysia, after this third crash in just over a year involving helicopters belonging to MHS. The cause of the accident is being investigated by the Department of Civil Aviation.
Zambia: Copper Plant Forced to Close after Toxic Spillage
On 8th November 2006, the Mines Safety Department of the Zambian government ordered Konkola Copper Mines to halt production at its Tailings Leach plant after a toxic spill polluted a river. The plant will remain closed until the company clears the polluted silt. Two local water supply companies had to cut supplies to residential areas after the spillage because the water was too dangerous to drink.
KCM, majority-owned by the London-listed company Vedanta Resources, is Zambia's largest copper producer. The plant, which is located 420 km north of Lusaka, produces finished copper from slag dumps and by-products from its concentrator. KCM had planned to produce 200,000 tonnes of finished copper by December 2006, but the closure will have serious consequences on production as the amount of clearance work is unquantified.
Mining pollution has become a major concern in Zambia after a lead poisoning scare at Kabwe, a mining town 140 km north of Lusaka. In that case, the government acknowledged that children faced a threat to their health from pollution caused by the mine, which was shut down in the 1990s.
Iraq: Bechtel Withdraws from Iraq
At the end of October 2006, the American engineering and construction company, Bechtel, finished its last government contract to rebuild power, water and sewage plants across the country. In early November, the company announced that it would cease operations in Iraq after completing nearly 100 projects at a cost of US $2.3 billion over the past three years. The reason they gave was the loss of 52 workers dead and the wounding of 49.
Some of its contracts were suspended and left incomplete due to escalating security expenses; they include a water treatment plant in Baghdad and a two-storey hospital for children in Basra.
The company had reduced its personnel presence in Iraq from 200 people (who were responsible for the supervision of tens of thousands of Iraqi construction project workers) to two (who were tidying up paperwork).
Abu Dhabi: Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Project Announced
In mid-November 2006, it was announced that Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (ADFEC), wholly owned by Mubadala Development Company, had signed an agreement with Shell to develop joint projects to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and monetise the resulting emission reduction credits under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) of the Kyoto Protocol. ADFEC and Shell will target CDM projects focusing on energy and industry in the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.
The agreement marks an advance in the Government's Masdar initiative, designed to develop and promote clean energy and sustainability. In addition to protecting the environment, the CDM is expected to offer economic benefits, particularly to countries in the Middle East, as oil-based economies are in an advantageous position to fast-track CDM projects.
Ghana: Gold Mining and Environmental Degradation
A report published online at
http://www.actionaid.org.uk/doc_lib/gold_rush.pdf by ActionAid,
Gold Rush, the impact of gold mining on poor people in Obuasi in Ghana,
highlights how poor communities in Obuasi in Ghana are suffering serious
environmental pollution and social problems as a result of gold mining by a
subsidiary of the giant mining company Anglo American, which is now based in
the UK.
As a result of company operations, rivers and streams and agricultural land have become polluted with arsenic, cyanide, iron, manganese and heavy metals from the mining activities of the Anglo American subsidiary, AngloGold Ashanti (AGA) and its predecessor, Ashanti Goldfields Corporation (AGC). Instead of benefiting the region, mining activity by AGA/AGC has brought large social and environmental costs to thousands of its poorest people. AngloGold Ashanti is a net drain on the area's health, wealth and development prospects.
The report calls for tougher domestic company laws and for new international laws to regulate corporations and their subsidiaries to help ensure greater respect for human rights. One current legislative opportunity ActionAid believes could place a greater onus on UK-listed companies to respect such rights more rigorously overseas is through amendments to the new UK Companies Bill , which is currently going through the UK Parliament. If greater legal duties were placed upon the directors of UK-listed companies to take steps to minimise negative social and environmental impacts on communities overseas, it could help prevent some of the issues highlighted in the report.
International: The UN Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals
The aim of the United Nations Globally Harmonised System of Classification and Labelling of Chemicals (GHS) is for every chemical substance to have the same label worldwide. At present, different laws in different countries regulate how the hazardous properties of chemicals are described and how this information is passed to users, which is a potential source of confusion. A substance classed as toxic in one country may not be so labelled in another.
The UN GHS, which is not a formal Treaty and therefore not legally binding, wants worldwide standards on:
- Criteria for classifying chemicals according to their health, environmental and physical hazards.
- Hazard communication requirements for labelling and safety data sheets.
The latest version of the UN GHS, referred to as the first revised edition of the 'Purple Book', was published in November 2006 and is accessible online from the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) website at www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_rev01/01files_e.html.
Canada: Oilsands Activity Threatens Water Supply
The Alberta oilsands are often cited as a major petroleum resource. In 2005, they yielded more than one million barrels of oil per day, but a recent study suggests that the oilsands may be exhausted by mid-century, and in the meantime their voracious water consumption constitutes a major threat to the water supply available to Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories through the Mackenzie River system.
The study by the Sage Centre and World Wildlife Fund Canada, which was released at the United Nations climate conference in Nairobi, Kenya, uses the Athabasca River and the Great Lakes as case studies to project the future of Canadian freshwater supplies.
The oilsands operations draw most of their water from the Athabasca River, a tributary of the Mackenzie, and most of the water used is not returned to the river. Water allocations by Alberta to oilsands projects amount to 359 million cubic metres per year, twice the amount of water required for the city of Calgary. A further 50% increase in water requirements from the Athabasca is expected when currently planned oilsands projects proceed, an unsustainable rate of water use. The Athabasca River is already losing flow due to the effects of global warming and its summer flow at Fort McMurray declined almost 20% from 1958 to 2003.
The study concludes that the combined impacts of water withdrawals by oilsands projects and climate change will have serious consequences beyond the area of the projects themselves, giving rise to an urgent need for provincial and territorial governments around the Mackenzie basin to negotiate binding water-sharing agreements, such as already exist for the Saskatchewan River system.
Strip mining in the oilsands requires 2 to 4.5 cubic metres of water to extract one cubic metre of synthetic crude oil. The water becomes heavily polluted in the process and only 10% is returned to the river, with the rest held in storage ponds that are now among the largest man-made structures on Earth. Environmental damage related to bitumen production could eventually affect an area about one-fifth the size of Alberta, or about the size of England or Greece, since that is the extent of the deposits.
The study recommends a moratorium on further oilsands projects until the water problems can be solved, but that seems an unlikely scenario.
China: 47 Miners Die in Gas Explosion
On 5th November 2006, an explosion took place at the Jiaojiazhai Colliery in Xinzhou, a city in the central northern area of Shanxi Province. The colliery is owned by Xuangang Coal and Electricity Company under the Datong Coal Mine Group. In total 393 miners were working underground when the blast occurred, and 346 escaped. The remaining 47 were all found dead.
According to a report from the State Administration of Work Safety, although the direct cause of the incident is still under investigation, it probably stemmed from ignorance of workplace safety and poor management. The gas monitoring system showed that the gas concentration was abnormal and that there was a risk of explosion, but production managers did not take effective measures and did not order the miners to stop working.
USA: Contractor Fined $2.3 Million over Workplace Deaths
In mid-November 2006, the US Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cited a painting contractor, Thomas Industrial Coatings Inc. of Pevely, Missouri, for 33 wilful and eight serious alleged violations of job safety and health standards under the Occupational Safety and Health Act 1970. They proposed penalties totalling US$2,362,500.
The citations resulted from an investigation into two fatal workplace accidents within two months involving the contractor. Both accidents occurred at the same bridge- painting worksite in Kansas City and the same suspended scaffold. One employee died when he fell through a hole in the platform while he was painting, and the other fell to his death while dismantling the scaffold. In addition, another employee of the same company suffered a fatal fall in a similar accident earlier in the year in the St Louis area.
The safety violations related to lack of fall protection and training for employees, especially in the use of fall protection equipment and the safe dismantling of scaffolding, lack of safe scaffold access, use of an unqualified scaffold designer and lack of competent persons to supervise the work. The employer failed to inspect the scaffold and its components and to secure the suspension cables properly. The employer permitted other unsafe practices, including allowing tripping hazard debris to accumulate in front of the large platform holes and overloading the personnel lift.
South Africa: Farm Workers Struck by Train
On 14th November 2006, a truck carrying Western Cape farm workers was struck at a level crossing by a Metrorail train on the Cape Town line between Faure and Firgrove stations. Nineteen of the people in the truck were killed and 12 were injured.
The level crossing lies on an approach road to Ridgemore Farm, and although the train company had installed warning signs, stop boards and train whistle boards, it had been the site of several previous accidents. The South African Railway Safety Regulator has suggested that the truck driver may have ignored all the warning signals and then unintentionally stalled his vehicle on the rail tracks, a common enough panic scenario when a train is seen approaching.
USA: Worker Killed by Adhesive Fumes
In a confined space, the evaporation of solvent from adhesive used to secure carpeting may result in the accumulation of narcotic fumes. The adhesive products must be clearly marked with a warning on the importance of adequate ventilation during curing and workers employed on such work must be trained in appropriate safety precautions. A casual attitude to handling toxic adhesives can result in disabling injury or death, and it is the responsibility of management to ensure that employees follow a safe system of work.
In mid-November 2006, a worker at the boat builder Donzi Marine in Bradenton, south of St Petersburg, Florida, died in such a confined space accident while using adhesives to fit carpeting inside the cabin of a Donzi 352R boat.
International: New Law Permits Burial of Carbon Dioxide
In early November 2006, the London Convention Governing Burial of Material in the Sea was amended to make it legal to bury CO2 in natural structures under the oceans. The amendment was ratified by 29 countries, including the UK, China and Australia. The objective was to provide a legal mechanism to enable countries to bury (or sequester) excess CO2 in suitable caverns, aquifers and porous rocks beneath the seabed.
The Carbon Capture and Storage Association in London, representing 37 multinational companies, is keen to press ahead with burial schemes linked to electricity generation. Seven prototype schemes are planned in the UK alone, which by 2025 could cut British CO2 emissions by a quarter, far faster than any other option at present available.
Among proposals still in the planning stage are the Monash Project, a coal to diesel processing plant near Melbourne, Australia, a joint venture between Anglo American and Shell, which will pump CO2 produced during processing into depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs; the Norwegian Statoil plan to sequester one million tonnes of CO2 per year into disused sectors of the Sleipner oilfield; and the Xstrata proposal to build power stations in Australia near disused mines with unworkable coal seams, where CO2 can be stored.
As we have noted previously (see the Summer 2006 Newsletter item, International: Deep Burial of CO2 Hits a Snag), the idea is controversial because of fears that the buried CO2 may escape back into the atmosphere and cause a surge in atmospheric warming.
South Korea: Cement Manufacturers Forced to Clean Production Methods
In mid-November 2006, the Korea Cement Industrial Association (KCIA), Korea Federation of Ready-Mixed Concrete Industry Co-operatives, Korea Concrete Institute and five other institutions and organisations related to cement agreed to establish "a collective council concerning concrete". The stimulus for this action was the fact that some cement companies are being investigated under the suspicion that they manufactured cement out of industrial wastes which are harmful to humans.
The KCIA asked Kunsan University to investigate how much hexavalent chromium, a known carcinogen, is contained in marketed cement and then announced the results by voluntary disclosure. Until then, many customers had been unaware that hazardous substances were contained in the product. The source of the toxins arises from reuse of hazardous industrial waste in cement manufacture.
The major producers, whose main overseas market is Japan, are now making efforts to set environmental standards on hazardous substances and to put forward the development of technologies that will reduce environmental damage.
China: Man Sent to Prison for Chemical Waste Dumping
On 20th November 2006, the People's Court of Jiading District in Shanghai gave an 18-month prison term and a fine of 100,000 yuan (US $12,500) to a man alleged to have profited from the illegal dumping of 39 tonnes of unprocessed toxic electrolytic chemical waste, which included hydrogen cyanide, hydrogen fluoride and heptanone, causing soil and water pollution.
For anyone working in this area it is important to have the most up-to-date version for full compliance with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) Directive, which came into force on 1st January 2006.
He tipped waste in Shanghai on three occasions, either at the roadside or on a construction site, between March and June 2006. The waste, which emitted a strong odour and caused skin irritation for one person walking by, cost the authorities 330,000 yuan (US $41,770 dollars) to clean up. By using a forged licence for dangerous waste disposal, the man had obtained a legitimate waste disposal contract with a Shanghai chemical plant.
Tests carried out by the local environment monitoring authorities showed that concentration levels of the poisonous hydrochloride and chloric fluoride pollutants in the affected areas were 150 times and 550 times higher than national limits. Ground water was also severely contaminated.
Philippines: Barge Sinking Renews Oil Pollution Fears
In the Autumn 2006 Newsletter, we reported on a disastrous oil spill caused by Petron Corp. tanker "Solar 1", which sank in rough seas off Guimaras Island in the central Philippines (see item, Philippines: Environmental Disaster Caused by Incompetence).
On 20th November 2006, a barge hired by Petron and carrying 59,000 sacks of sludge recovered from the tanker spillage, sank as it was being towed to a processing plant on the southern island of Mindanao. The barge foundered in strong winds and high seas about 6.4 km off the coastline of Plaridel town, raising fears of another environmental mishap. The crew of the vessel was rescued but the fate of the sludge was unknown. Fishing had already been prohibited in the area due to the bad weather.
Around 1.4 million litres of oil remained trapped in the "Solar 1", which lies under 640 metres of water; the authorities were expecting to wait until calmer weather to siphon it off.
In a separate development in early December 2006, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF) announced that it would be paying about US $2.7 million in compensation to 13,000 claimants in the island-province of Guimaras. The oil spill claimants dealt with so far comprised 34 holiday resort owners, 21 tour operators and 3,700 fishermen in the town of San Lorenzo. The claims were for property damage and for economic loss in the fisheries, mariculture and fish processing sectors, claims for costs of clean-up and pollution prevention measures.
Poland: Miners Trapped by Methane Explosion
On 21st November 2006, a methane gas explosion at the state-owned Halemba coal mine in Ruda Slaska, about 300 km south-west of Warsaw, killed eight miners and trapped another 15 underground, later confirmed as dead. Rescue workers had to clear 500 metres of fallen rubble to reach the men trapped 1,000 metres underground, but rescue efforts were severely hampered by an oxygen-deficient atmosphere, water ingress, temperatures around 40oC, and the risk of a second explosion. The mine shaft had been closed in March 2006 because of high gas levels, and the miners were trying to retrieve abandoned equipment worth $23 million (?17.9 million).
An earlier explosion took place in 1990 at the Halemba pit, which lies in the Silesian coalfields, and killed 19 miners. More than 80 miners have died in Poland since 2003.
Nigeria: Foreign Oil Workers Seized from Ship
The Italian oil company, Eni, reported that on 21st November 2006, a gang of armed militants in speedboats kidnapped seven foreign oil workers from a ship off the coast of the Niger Delta. Eighty-three workers were on the supply ship when it was attacked at sea. The following day, six hostages were rescued by a government security force but the seventh, a UK citizen, was shot dead. Two of the kidnappers and a soldier were also killed.
On 27th November, Eni suspended production at two oil fields, which together produce 60,000 barrels of oil a day. Eni declared force majeure in relation to the suspension, meaning that it is not liable for any penalties because the cause was attributed to events outside its responsibility.
Australia: Aboriginal Cancer Doubles near Uranium Mine
A paper by the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, intended for submission to the Australian Government Nuclear Energy Taskforce, was released to the media in late November 2006. The study found that cases of cancer among Aborigines near the Ranger uranium mine, the largest in Australia, appear to be almost double the normal rate. There has been no medical monitoring in the past 20 years of the Ranger mine's impact on the health of local indigenous people, despite the fact that there have been more than 120 spillages and leaks of contaminated water at the mine since 1981. The mine is located in the World Heritage-listed Kakadu National Park.
The study compared Aborigines diagnosed with cancer in the Kakadu region with the cancer rate among all Aboriginal people in the Northern Territory from 1994 to 2003. It found the diagnosis rate was 90% higher than expected in the Kakadu region, with 27 cases reported. If the diagnosis rate had been proportional to the territory's overall Aboriginal population, there would have been 14 cases. The authors of the study described the higher cancer rate as a cause for serious concern, and state that further investigation is clearly warranted. They called for on-going health monitoring of all indigenous communities living near current and proposed uranium mines.
Energy Resources of Australia (ERA), which operates Ranger, denied that people living in Jabiru and other communities near the mine were being exposed to abnormal levels of radiation. ERA, which is majority-owned by the multinational mining giant, Rio Tinto, announced it wants to extend the life of the Ranger mine by six years to 2020.
China: Jilin Benzene Spill Investigation Recommends Severe Punishment
Following the fatal explosions in a nitrobenzene fractionating tower and toxic benzene spillage in November 2005 at the PetroChina Chemical Plant in the city of Jilin in north-east China, which caused a major international environmental incident with a cost of 69.08 million yuan (about US $8.74 million) in direct economic losses, the Chinese State Council in Beijing administered severe penalties to the officials responsible for the blast and for poisoning water supplies for millions of people.
The announcement came after the State Council heard the results of the investigation into the incident and approved severe administrative and disciplinary punishment of officials of the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and environmental officials of Jilin Province. The director of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) resigned in December 2005 in response to the disaster. The head of the provincial environment protection bureau in Jilin Province, also the Party's secretary general of the bureau, received a major demerit from the administrative system and a warning from the Party. Such punishment effectively marks the termination of a political or business career. Another 11 held responsible, including the vice president of CNPC, who is also senior vice president of PetroChina Company Limited; and the general manager of the chemical plant, received administrative punishments from the State Council. Nine other executives received disciplinary punishments ranging from serious warnings to demotions and dismissal.
The State Council ordered work safety officials to stay on high alert as industrial accidents normally peak in late winter and early spring. They also ordered enhanced monitoring of hazardous chemicals and promised severe punishments for those responsible for industrial accidents. China has more than 20,000 chemical factories along its major rivers, including 10,000 along the Yangtze River and 4,000 along the Yellow River.
USA: DuPont Ordered to Cut Exposure to PFOA
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on 21st November 2006 that it had lowered the "action" trigger level of the substance perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) from 150 parts per billion to 0.5 parts per billion for any public or private drinking water system in Ohio and around the DuPont Washington Works site in Parkersburg, West Virginia. The action was based on the discovery of higher-than-normal levels of PFOA in the blood of Parkersburg area residents.
Both DuPont Co. and federal regulators agreed on this drastically lower contamination limit for some drinking water supplies tainted with the chemical, which is used to make DuPont's Teflon products and thousands of other industrial and consumer goods, including coatings for food packaging.
An EPA advisory panel has recommended listing PFOA as a probable cancer-causing agent. The chemical has been under intense public scrutiny for years, since researchers found the environmentally-persistent compound in the bloodstreams of humans and animals around the globe, including polar bears.
(See the item in the Spring 2006 Newsletter , USA: US COMPANIES AGREE TO BAN PFOA.)
International: EU Ban on Possible Cancer-Causing Hair Dyes
People employed as hairdressers are prone to a range of occupational health problems associated with exposure to chemical substances at work. Their clients, a far larger group numerically, are not regarded as being at work but as consumers they are also exposed to the same substances.
Following a review published in July 2006 of the EC Scientific Committee on Consumer Products Opinion on Hair Dye Strategy, the European Commission placed a ban on the use of 22 hair dye substances in order to increase consumer safety. No safety information on these products had been submitted by the industry and the Scientific Committee advising the Commission recommended they be prohibited in view of epidemiological evidence to indicate that the regular and long- term use of hair dyes by women may be associated with the development of bladder cancer. The ban came into force on 1st December 2006. The EC stated that substances for which producers have failed to prove that they do not pose a health risk and are safe will be removed from the market, in addition to those substances for which the SCCP has given a negative opinion. In view of the non-co-operation of the industry, it was assumed that the ban will not significantly impact upon the competitiveness of hair dye manufacturers. The hair dye market in the EU was worth ? 2.6 billion in 2004, accounting for some 8% of the value of output of the cosmetics industry in Europe.
China: 25 Miners Die in Illegally Operated Mine
The Yuanhua Coal Mine in Jixi City, which lies in Heilongjiang Province, north-east China, was ordered to cease production at the end of August 2006 by the local government due to outdated certificates on work safety. The owners ignored the order and continued mining. On 25th November 2006, a methane explosion took place underground while 40 miners were at work. A power cut at one work site led to the breakdown of the ventilation system and the gradual accumulation of a large volume of gas. When the electrical supply resumed some hours later, attempts were made to pump out the accumulated gas, but an explosion took place. Twenty-five miners were killed, nine escaped, four were rescued and the remaining two were missing.
Senior county officials are prohibited from promotion or honours if more than ten miners die in a single accident in their territories, and high-ranking municipal officials receive demerits in their assessments if more than three miners die in a single accident in their territories.
Ireland: Heavy Fines and Suspended Prison Terms over Fatal Accident
Following a fatal accident in which a construction worker was electrocuted when a truck-mounted pump contacted a 10 Kv overhead power line during a concrete pour on a building site in Bray, County Wicklow, the principal contractor, Cormac Building Contractors, was fined ?150,000 by a court. The worker's employer, Kildownet Utilities Ltd, was fined ?100,000 for breaches of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act. Cormac's site manager was found guilty of breaching Section 13 of the Non-Fatal Offences Against the Person Act , for which he received a three-year suspended prison sentence. Kildownet's director was also found guilty and received a suspended prison sentence.
International: UN Criticises Rich Nations for Dumping Electronic Waste
At the end of November 2006, the Under-Secretary General of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) told delegates at the eighth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal that the richest nations were continuing to dump their toxic electronic wastes on the developing world.
Every month a minimum of 100,000 computers are entering the Nigerian port of Lagos alone. The equipment is not reuseable pieces that might be used for trade, but is simply electronic waste such as old televisions, CPUs and non-functional telephone handsets, and is part of a chain of long distance dumping from developed country consumers and companies to an African rubbish tip or landfill. A major contributor to the problem is the more developed world's obsession with 'built-in obsolescence', which results in ever greater quantities of waste contaminated with chemicals and heavy metals being dumped where it can contaminate water supplies and human beings.
Japan was cited as a model for pioneering a strategy of "the 3R's" - Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. China was going one stage further with the concept of the Circular Economy, in which nothing is regarded as waste and everything is a raw material for another process, whether it be the by-products of a chemical factory or the heat from a power station.
Greece: Largest Ever Environmental Fine Imposed on Quarry Companies
On 30th November 2006, the Greek Environment Ministry fined two quarrying businesses a total of ?2 million for breaching environmental laws in the largest penalty yet imposed for this type of violation. The two quarrying companies, Markopoulou Latomeia and Stavrou Latomeia, had been operating illegally in an area to the east of Athens for the last 40 years. They had no environmental licences and were in violation of a ruling by the Council of State, the country's highest administrative court, that they cease operations. The court had fined the same companies a total of ?700,000 in September 2004 for the same offences, but the fines had not been paid.
Their activities caused serious health problems to residents in the broader area and destroyed the local environment. A study by the Athens Observatory found that dust particles emitted by the quarrying had created air pollution in Markopoulou equal to that in the most heavily polluted parts of Athens (a city notorious for its atmospheric pollution). The local authorities were reluctant to enforce previous court decisions as nobody was prepared to take responsibility for shutting down the quarries.
Philippines: Pesticide Fumes Overcome a Town
On 29th November 2006, 79 people, most of them schoolchildren, were hospitalised after inhaling toxic pesticide fumes which drifted over them from a banana plantation outside the town of Braulio Dujali in Davao del Norte.
The substance they inhaled was Mocap, a nematicide used against worms in the plant root system, which is manufactured by Bayer Cropscience. It contains Ethotrop as its active ingredient, a known cholinesterase inhibitor which severely affects the functioning of the human nervous system. The symptoms may vary from nausea, weakness or fainting to paralysis and death.
The source of the fumes was the Tagum Agricultural Development Company Inc. (Tadeco). It was reported that the poisoning happened after employees of Tadeco applied Mocap while school activity was on-going.
The local authorities ordered an investigation into the incident and ordered health officials to monitor the condition of the victims.
USA: Danvers Chemical Plant Explosion
The US Chemical Safety Board is investigating a disastrous explosion which took place in the early hours of the morning on 22nd November 2006 at a chemical plant in Danvers, Massachusetts, owned by Arnel Co.
The shockwave caused structural damage to scores of local homes and businesses, and broke more than 30 windows at a high school two kilometres from the explosion origin. There were no public fatalities as people were still asleep in bed at the time.
The CSB investigation will concentrate on process equipment among the plant remnants, interviews with key operating employees, and the nature of the process activities that were underway preceding the explosion. Investigators have also drawn samples for laboratory analysis from underground storage tanks where the bulk raw materials were stored.
Dubai: Aviation Fuel Company Wins Safety Award
In early December 2006, the Exxon Mobil International Safety Award for the year 2006 was presented to Emojet, the aviation fuels section of Emarat at Dubai International Airport, in recognition of outstanding performance in fuelling jets with a 100% incident-free record for the last three years.
The award is given to aviation fuel companies operating out of various international airports as an incentive to provide better services when refuelling aircraft. It is based on a record which is free of any client complaints, delays in flights or employee incidents and asset damage over the past three years, and demands a high standard of operational safety applied at all levels.
Qatar: Sustainable Waste Management Project Under Way
Keppel Seghers of Singapore, a waste-to-energy and wastewater technology equipment specialist, is to build the first integrated solid waste treatment facility in the Middle East for the Qatar Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Agriculture. Keppel Seghers will design and build four waste transfer stations and one plant to handle and treat domestic solid waste for the whole of Qatar. The new integrated plant will treat an initial capacity of more than 1,550 tonnes of waste a day and will have waste sorting and recycling facilities, landfill, composting plant and a 1,000 tonnes per day waste-to-energy incineration plant.
The proprietary technology to be used includes the Keppel Seghers water-cooled grate, the Danodrum system for recycling and pre-treatment of waste, the rotary atomiser semi-dry system for flue gas treatment and the Unibrane membrane bioreactor system for wastewater treatment. Integrated waste management significantly reduces the amount of waste sent to landfill by reducing the volume to be incinerated through composting and recycling, thus extending the expected life of landfills and reducing the amount of land that has to be set aside for future landfill. Resources such as fertilisers and electricity are created from the waste.
As a company, Seghers has a chequered history. A Seghers incinerator run by Indaver in Antwerp, Belgium, was closed down in August 2002 because it breached its dioxin emissions limit by 1,300 times, contaminating a 12-km zone. Further testing in January 2003 demonstrated that it could not meet emissions targets and the plant was closed. In December 2002, another Seghers incinerator in the city of St Niklaas was ordered to close by court order. The company was declared bankrupt and its assets were purchased by the Singaporean Keppel Corporation.
Angola: Semi-Submersible Vessel Lost Offshore
On 6th December 2006, the Dutch flagged semi-submersible vessel "Mighty Servant 3" developed a list and sank about one mile off the North Angolan coast near the Port of Luanda after offloading the drilling rig GSF Aleutian Key. The vessel lies on the seabed under 62 metres of water. The drilling rig, which had a crew of 83 personnel onboard, did not sustain any damage and continued to its drilling location. The 21- man crew of the semi-submersible was rescued and taken to Port of Luanda by one of the support vessels on standby during the offloading.
The semi-submersible was of 27,720 dwt with an open cargo deck 40 metres wide and 140 metres long. The vessel can move cargoes weighing up to 25,000 tonnes and was equipped with a counterweight system enabling use of the ship's horizontal semi-submersible capabilities without using the aft buoyancy casings. The "Mighty Servant 3" is capable of loading/discharging floating cargoes overhanging all three sides of the cargo deck. The cause of the incident is unknown.
Bahrain: Companies Told to Improve Work Camp Safety
Following the completion of nationwide inspections conducted by a ministerial committee, formal notice was served on companies responsible for more than 300 labour camps and other forms of worker accommodation who were found to be in breach of government safety regulations. The offenders were stated to have committed nearly 1,000 violations and would face prosecution if they did not put them right. The safety breaches concerned fire safety, availability of fire extinguishers, safe electrical connections, water supply and sanitation. It was reported that there were no major violations posing an immediate threat, but conditions must improve to ensure the long-term safety of Bahrain's workers.
The committee comprised representatives from the Ministries of Interior, Labour, Municipalities and Agriculture and some other government bodies. It was set up following the Gudaibiya labour camp fire.
International: Mobile Phone Factories Poison Asian Workers
A mobile phone is regarded as an essential accessory in developed countries, but the devices and their components are manufactured and assembled in China, Thailand, the Philippines and India, where widespread violations of international labour and health and safety standards are common practice. A recent study by SOMO, the Netherlands-based Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations, found that Asian workers are subject to hazardous manufacturing conditions, particularly in relation to exposure to toxic chemicals. Protection from hazardous chemicals is inadequate and workers do not receive training on how to handle such substances, leading to chronic work-related ill-health.
Workers in factories producing parts for Nokia and Motorola work without proper protection and are exposed to chemicals which cause chronic illnesses and serious physical harm. Employee initiatives to improve working conditions are thwarted by the factory owners.
Among other case studies, the researchers found that in Thailand, workers using lead solder to manufacture motors for Nokia phones were expected to buy their own protective masks and gloves. Instead of protective equipment, the workers were given milk to filter toxins from their blood. Several sick workers were hospitalised and diagnosed with dangerous levels of lead poisoning. In a factory in China producing lenses for Motorola phones, researchers encountered nine workers who had been poisoned through unprotected contact with the neurotoxic solvent n-hexane. One female employee was pregnant and had to undergo an abortion because of complications caused by workplace poisoning. The management of the factory initially refused to provide medical treatment.
The report calls on the five largest mobile telephone companies, Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG, all of whom have corporate social responsibility policies, to improve their safety practices, particularly in regard to their failure to oversee the activities of their contractors and subcontracting companies in the supply chain, and ensure compliance with agreed codes of conduct.
The report is available online at: http://www.somo.nl/html/paginas/pdf/
High_Cost_of_Calling_nov_2006_EN.pdf.
USA: Daytona Beach Wastewater Plant Explosion
The US Chemical Safety Board released preliminary findings of its investigation into an explosion in January 2006 in which two municipal employees were killed and one seriously injured at the Bethune Point Wastewater Plant in Daytona, Florida.
Three workers were using a cutting torch to remove a steel roof over a storage tank containing highly flammable methyl alcohol (methanol) at the treatment plant, which is owned and operated by the City of Daytona Beach. Methanol vapours coming from the tank vent were ignited by the torch being used on the roof above. The flame then flashed back into the storage tank, causing an explosion inside that led to multiple piping failures and a large fire which engulfed the tank and the workers.
The investigation found that the storage tank did not comply with the US National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) Code 30, Flammable and Combustible Liquids Code. The piping and valves attached to the tank were plastic (PVC) instead of steel, and they fractured after the initial explosion. If the facility had ensured that the tank complied with NFPA 30 by using steel piping and valves, the accident would probably not have resulted in the two fatalities. Plastic piping should not have been used for this process. It was also found that the flame arrester on the tank, a safety device that prevents ignition inside a tank from an external fire, had not been inspected or cleaned since its installation in 1993. The flame arrester was constructed from aluminium, a metal which is not recommended for methyl alcohol service. By the time of the accident, the flame arrester was badly corroded and did not prevent flames from entering the tank and causing an explosion.
The CSB commented that the City of Daytona Beach authorities have no programme to control hot work (such as welding or high-temperature cutting) at city facilities, nor does the city require work plan reviews to evaluate the safety of non-routine tasks. Since the year 2000, no Florida state laws or regulations have been made that require municipalities to communicate chemical hazards to their employees. Florida municipalities are not covered by federal OSHA workplace safety standards, and no state or federal oversight of public employee safety exists in Florida.
The cause of the accident was inadequate engineering and a lack of public worker safety management.
Algeria: Halliburton Workers Attacked
On 10th December 2006, assailants threw a bomb and fired automatic weapons at two vehicles carrying employees of Brown and Root-Condor (BRC), an affiliate of the US company Halliburton, from their offices in Algiers to the town of Bouchaoui, where the employees were housed. Most of the employees were in a bus following behind a security vehicle. The Algerian security driver was killed and nine people were injured, including one American, several Britons, one Canadian, one Lebanese and one Algerian. Eight were treated in a nearby hospital and released, while one remained hospitalised.
Algeria is just beginning to enjoy an oil boom and increased foreign investment after the insurgency that caused an estimated 150,000 deaths in the 1990s. Attacks on American targets are rare in Algeria, although the interests of the former colonial ruler, France, have often been targeted.
Bahrain: Construction Worker Killed in Crane Collapse
On 15th December 2006, it was reported that on the Bahrain City Centre project one construction worker had died and another suffered injuries after part of a tower crane fell through a concrete slab and onto the men, who were resting underneath it. A gear failure during the jacking of a tower section caused the part to drop around 20 metres, where it landed on a precast slab. The workers should not have been taking a break in a restricted area.
The cause of the crane malfunction was unknown, as was the absence of site supervision of the workers.
Norway: Sunken Submarine Poses Toxic Threat
In December 1944, the 87-metre German U-boat U864 left the Baltic port of Kiel carrying a cargo of 65 tonnes of mercury in 1,857 canisters. Its destination was Japan, but the vessel was sunk by a torpedo fired from the British submarine HMS Venturer in the only known case of one submarine destroying another while both were submerged. The mercury was originally used in weapons production and was a secondary cargo, the more important load being advanced Messerschmitt jet engine parts for use in Japanese military aircraft.
The wreck of U864, along with her crew of 72 men, now lies in two pieces about 152 metres beneath North Sea waters off the Norwegian island of Fedje, with her toxic cargo still in its corroding canisters. She was rediscovered by the Norwegian Navy in 2003 and later dangerous levels of mercury contamination were found on the surrounding seabed. Fishing and boating in the immediate area were banned and islanders were told not to eat local seafood.
In December 2006, the Norwegian Government announced plans to entomb the dangerous wreck in a sarcophagus of 100,000 cubic metres of sand and gravel, or possibly even concrete 12 metres thick, as the potential for environmental pollution is greater than any yet faced by Norway. The cost could exceed ?12 million.
India: Excessive Toxic Gas Levels Emitted by Chennai Waste Dump
Air test samples taken by the Community Environmental Monitoring organisation (CEM) from the Kodungaiyur solid waste tip, where the city of Chennai (formerly Madras) dumps a major portion of its rubbish, have revealed excessive levels of five toxic gases. The samples were analysed by the Californian laboratory of Columbia Analytical Services, where they were subjected to a series of tests as prescribed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The results revealed the presence of nine hazardous chemicals, five of which were above the permitted norms for residential exposure. They included carbon disulphide, chloromethane, acrolein, benzene and 1,2-dichlorobenzene. The presence of some of the substances indicates that plastic is being burnt at the dumping ground in large quantities. In India, landfill sites are often reworked by poor illegal rag pickers, many of them children, who enter premises with the connivance of security guards. Such people are heavily exposed to hazardous substances.
CEM called on the Chennai Corporation to implement safeguards described in the Municipal Solid Waste Handling Rules of 2000 for landfills and find an alternative location for waste disposal.
Canada: Sharp Rise in Work-Related Death Toll
In most industrial countries, workplace fatalities are decreasing, but not in Canada where work-related deaths have risen by 45%, from 758 in 2003 to 1,097 in 2005.
The figures were released by the Canadian Centre for the Study of Living Standards in a report which comments that there is an association with the boom in oil exploration and production, mining and construction; but the escalating work deaths figure also reflects a steady increase in the number of workers dying from long-ago exposure to dangerous products such as asbestos.
Of the work-related deaths in 2005, 491 were the result of workplace accidents and 557 were caused by diseases related to occupation, of which 340 or 30% were asbestos-related. Canada is a major producer and exporter of asbestos and its male population is suffering from an epidemic of work-related mesothelioma cases.
Ireland: Safety Authority Warns on Dangers of Man-Basket Work
The Health and Safety Authority in Dublin issued a warning in December 2006, drawing attention to safety issues associated with working at a height from non-integrated platforms or 'baskets' attached to forklift trucks and tele-handlers. There have been several recent fatal and serious non-fatal injuries where workers have fallen from such platforms.
Integrated working platforms contain controls within the platform which are integrated into the controls of the truck or tele-handler. The design of an integrated platform must relate to the combination of the specific truck/tele-handler and the working platform, not simply to the working platform in isolation.
Non-integrated platforms do not have controls within the platform and may not be designed for a particular truck/tele-handler. Forklift trucks or tele-handlers are not specifically designed to carry people and therefore they are unlikely to be the most suitable work equipment for work at a height.
Non-integrated platforms may only be used in exceptional circumstances and where it is not reasonably practicable to use purpose-designed access equipment such as a MEWP (mobile self-elevating work platform). Planned or routine work of whatever duration is not considered to be exceptional use. However, forklift trucks or tele-handlers fitted with integrated working platforms which have been designed to carry people may be used for work at height.
Nigeria: Workers Shot, Kidnapped and Plant Destroyed as Unrest Continues
On 12th December 2006, while OPEC was conducting a meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, an armed attack took place on a Royal Dutch Shell PLC (RDSB) oil complex and an adjacent flow station in Oporoma in the southern state of Bayelsa. One man was shot, three were taken hostage and the occupation of the station forced the halting of 12,000 barrels of oil per day production.
On 18th December, RDSB and Agip facilities in Port Harcourt were attacked with two car bombs detonated by mobile phone, but no details of injuries or damage were released.
Around a quarter of Nigeria's output of 2.3 to 2.5 million barrels per day is shut-in due to militant attacks on oil facilities.
Austria: Workers Killed in Ammonia Plant Explosion
On 21st December 2006, an explosion took place during maintenance work on an ammonia unit at the Agrolinz Melamine International chemical plant in the city of Linz, which lies on the River Danube around 130 kilometres west of the capital, Vienna. Two workers were killed and a third seriously injured. No details on the cause of the incident were released.
Agrolinz Melamine is a successor to the state-owned Chemie Linz AG, which used to be Austria's largest chemical company. It was sold off by the government and split into several different companies.
Russia: Sakhalin Energy Project Changes Hands
In the Autumn 2006 Newsletter (item, Russia: Sakhalin Energy Gas Project under Threat), we commented on an attempt by the Russian Federal Service for the Supervision of Natural Resources to block development of the Sakhalin 2 energy project on environmental grounds and revoke key licences.
In December 2006, concerns were mysteriously resolved when the project operator, Royal Dutch Shell, ceded control to Gazprom, the state-controlled natural gas monopoly, which took a majority stake in a deal that consolidates Kremlin command over national energy resources. Gazprom is now in a position to become a key supplier of natural gas to growing markets in Asia and North America.
Nigeria: Pipeline Vandals Cause Multiple Deaths
Thieves broke into a Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) pipeline passing through the Awori area of Abule Egba, a Lagos suburb, and spent three days siphoning off a large amount of fuel into two road petrol tankers. In the early morning of 26th December 2006, hundreds of local people who had become aware of the activity were on the site with jerry cans and plastic buckets to scoop fuel from the punctured pipeline, when a large explosion took place. The Nigerian Red Cross reported that at least 260 people were killed and dozens were injured. The emergency services took some hours to extinguish the fire and many of the bodies were burnt beyond recognition.
At least 2,000 people have died in similar incidents in recent years in Nigeria which, although the largest African oil exporter, suffers regular shortages of petrol and diesel because of reliance on imports of refined fuel from the West. Fuel import distribution is subject to corruption, poor management and infrastructure problems. The most lethal such pipeline incident was in Jesse in 1998 when 1,000 were killed.
In response, the UN called for a review of the country's fuel supply management, as well as a thorough regional review of risks that could lead to other environmental or technological disasters in West Africa. The Nigerian government directed that the entire pipeline system from Lagos to Mosimi be replaced and buried deeper to prevent further vandalisation.
India: Workers Die in Slurry Pit
At the end of December 2006, workers entered a slurry holding pit at the Karur KCP Packaging paper factory in Thiruvandarkoil, 20 kilometres from Puducherry. Their task was to carry out the daily cleaning of a valve in the pit, used to transfer industrial slurry to treatment tanks. The system was not locked off and when the valve unexpectedly opened, the workers were overwhelmed by an inrush of slurry. Access to the pit was by ladder. The workers had no protective or rescue equipment other than a rope. Five were killed and three injured in the confined space.
Canada: Employer Fined for Forklift Fatality
In early January 2007, Filtervac International Inc. of Breslau, Ontario, an oil purification systems supplier, was fined Canadian $90,000 at a court in Kitchener for violations of the Occupational Health and Safety Act after a fatal accident involving a forklift truck. The incident took place in March 2005, when a worker was using a forklift truck to move a heavy fabric bag containing clay removed from filter cylinders. The vehicle became unstable when it struck a kerb concealed by snow, causing the forklift to tip over. The driver attempted to jump clear, but was struck and pinned by the rollover cage.
A Ministry of Labour investigation found that the worker had not been trained in forklift operation and had no authorisation to drive it. The company had a rule that only trained forklift drivers were allowed to operate such vehicles, but the rule was not enforced, nor was there effective control on access to forklift keys.
The company pleaded guilty as an employer to failing to ensure that the forklift could be operated only by a worker authorised for the task.
REACH to be Enforced from June 2007
The new European regime for regulating chemicals, EC 1907/2006, the Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals Regulation (REACH), will come into force on 1st June 2007. Since it is an EU Regulation and not a Directive, REACH will not require member states to set up national transposing legislation. It will have direct effect from its implementation date.
All EU member states must set up a REACH competent authority, which in the UK will be the Health and Safety Executive. Its job will be to monitor compliance, evaluate substances of concern, and take regulatory action as appropriate and co-ordinate enforcement of the regulations. The HSE will work with DEFRA, the Environment Agency, the devolved administrations and the new European Chemicals Agency which will be set up in Helsinki.
REACH will replace more than 40 pieces of existing EU chemicals legislation and provide a single system for all chemical substances. It requires both registration and evaluation of specified chemicals which pose a risk to the environment or to human health, authorisation of chemicals of very high concern, and restrictions on the use of certain chemicals where appropriate.
REACH will affect manufacturers, importers and downstream users of chemicals. The burden of proof for demonstrating the safe use of chemicals will be transferred from EU member states to industry. Manufacturers and importers of chemicals in volumes greater than one tonne per year will be required to register each chemical substance in a central database. Unregistered chemicals cannot be manufactured in or imported into the EU market.
The provisions of REACH will be phased in over ten years. The proposed timeframe is:
- June 2008: European Chemicals Agency becomes operational, followed by pre-registration of phase-in substances.
- December 2010: Registration deadline for substances in quantities of over 1,000 tonnes and certain carcinogens, mutagens and chemicals toxic to reproduction.
- June 2013: Registration deadline for substances in quantities of over 100 tonnes.
- June 2018: Registration deadline for substances in quantities of over 1 tonne.
The HSE already has a helpdesk to advise and support UK business on dealing with the requirements of REACH, and further guidance and tools to support registrants and users of chemicals will become available later this year.
USA: Pentagon Pressures EPA on Perchlorate Pollution
In 2003, under pressure from the US Defense Department and contractors facing potential clean-up costs running into billions of dollars, the Bush administration ordered its Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists not to discuss in public perchlorate pollution in drinking water.
The EPA first placed perchlorate, a toxic and highly explosive ester used as a component in solid rocket fuel, on a list of potential contaminants in 1998. In the following year it required that states monitor drinking water for the presence of the chemical. The Agency concluded that the public safety standard for drinking water should be set at 1 part per billion (ppb).
In view of the potential cost of water treatment, the White House took perchlorate risk analysis out of the EPA's hands and gave it to the National Academy of Sciences. The Academy, under the influence of the US military, raised the supposed safe limit for perchlorate to 24.5 ppb in drinking water, since almost all water supplies fall below the threshold of 24.5 ppb. In an unusual move, the EPA placed the new dosage on its risk-information website without permitting any public comment.
Since then the Academy reference dose adopted by the EPA has come under increasing fire from toxicologists in those states considering adopting their own perchlorate limits in drinking water. They have questioned the validity of studies supporting the standard and the Agency's refusal to accept public comment on it.
Azerbaijan: Field Joint Coating Problem for BP Pipeline
The 1,100-mile-long Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, which links between the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean, has been the subject of a critical report commissioned by the Greek company, Consolidated Contractors International, and the UK company, Pipeline Induction Heat Ltd. It is claimed that the coating paint on the pipeline welds is subject to cracking that could allow corrosion and hence a potentially disastrous oil spill failure.
The organisations involved in the construction of the buried pipeline were aware of the problem, but it has been suggested that remedial action taken by BP is not sufficient and the coating still cracks. Attempts to fix the flaw contributed to a cost overrun of almost US $1 billion.
Failure of a defective field joint coating leading to a shutdown of the BTC pipeline would be likely to drive up the oil price. When BP closed half its Prudhoe Bay output, the price of oil soared as much as 3.4% to $77.30 a barrel the next day.
Australia: Zinc Mine Warns Residents Not to Drink Rainwater
The Century mine, operated by Zinifex, is located north of Mount Isa in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is the second largest open-cut zinc and lead mine in the world. In early January 2007, the mine management told residents of the adjacent town of Karumba in north-west Queensland to avoid drinking water from their rain tanks and urged them to submit to blood tests. The warning was issued after quality testing of a number of tanks in the community by Carpentaria Shire Council found dangerously high levels of lead, cadmium and zinc contamination which exceeded the federal National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines for drinking water.
The NHMRC stated that to best protect children and pregnant women from the harmful effects of lead, drinking water should not have more than 0.01 milligrams per litre of the metal. High lead levels in young children can alter brain function, delay neurodevelopment, decrease IQ levels and slow cognitive function and lead to behaviour problems. In 2006, it was reported that one in ten children in nearby Mount Isa had lead levels above those recommended by the World Health Organisation. The city soil and waterways were also found to have levels of metal contamination that grossly exceeded federal government health standards.
The source of the contamination is likely to be airborne dust blown from the mine site onto the roofs of houses in Karumba, then washed into their storage tanks by rain. It is not known whether any dust suppression and containment techniques are in use at the mine.
Zinifex also owns the Port Pirie lead and zinc smelter in South Australia, where for many years it denied that emissions from the plant were the direct cause of blood lead levels in local children exceeding the threshold recommended by the World Health Organisation. Monitoring by public health officials and continued high blood levels in communities around the plant forced the company to commit millions to containing lead emissions.
USA: Federal Agency Rejects Carcinogenic Wood Preservative for Home Use
On 8th January 2007, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rejected an industry bid to use a known carcinogen as a preservative in timber for floor decking, picnic tables, playgrounds and other household uses. Industry groups had petitioned the EPA three years ago to use acid copper chromate (ACC), which contains the substance hexavalent chromium, to treat wood sold in hardware and home improvement stores. Manufacturers of the chromium-based preservative had paid professional Washington lobbying organisations to act on their behalf.
According to the EPA, the incidence of cancer among workers handling this preservative can vary between 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 100,000. The federally accepted standard is 1 in a million. The Agency concluded that the dangers associated with the preservative outweigh the product's minimal benefits.
Four years ago, the EPA banned another toxic wood preservative called chromated copper arsenate (CCA) and wood suppliers were forced to use several different applications to keep wood from deteriorating and to prevent insect infestation. The now-banned ACC preservative is only marginally cheaper than other residential wood preservatives and is not demonstrably more effective.
The substance is still permitted to be used industrially to treat wood made into railroad ties and telephone ties.
USA: NASA Joins the Rest of the World
In early January 2007, NASA announced that it would be switching to metric units, leaving only Liberia and Burma still using Imperial measures. The decision came after year-long discussions with 13 other space agencies on matters of future co-operation and standardisation, in particular with lunar programmes.
In 1999, there was a notorious case of confusion in which one NASA team was using the measure of thrust in Imperial units of pound-seconds, while another on the same project was using metric newton-seconds. The result was the loss of the Mars Climate Orbiter and US $125 million. In the case of manned flight, standardisation of measurements becomes a safety-critical issue.
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