According to the AP, Poland is rejecting
toxic materials from El Salvador that they had originally agreed to dispose of after local communities expressed concern.
The 69 tons of liquid and solid waste, and contaminated earth, from a pesticide plant in El Salvador is en route by sea, where it was to be burned at the SARP Industries plant in Dabrowa Gornicza this month.
Environment Minister Maciej Grabowski said after talks at the ministry that the plant director decided against accepting the waste.
Grabowski pointed to protests by residents, who argue that the presence and the processing of the waste will add to the already polluted air of the industrial, coal mining town.
"Despite the security of the processes at the plant, it has not been possible to dispel the concerns of public opinion," Grabowski said.
In El Salvador, the waste had been linked to a high incidence of kidney disease in the town of San Luis Talpa, where it was found.
The majority of San Luis Talpa's 27,000 inhabitants suffer chronic kidney disease, and at least 54 deaths from the ailment have been registered. The Health Ministry in El Salvador has linked agriculture chemicals to incidence of the kidney disease.
Couldn't help but think of El Salvador's resistance to gold mining when I read this article.
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