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CONTENTS:
AROUND THE REGION
100 hospitalised in Romania
after cyanide spill kills fish
Pollution kills one ton of fish in Bulgarian
river
Hungary, Romania already sought $10m in
spill-prevention funds
Bulgaria plans dams to offset drought
Czech experts worried about falling birth
rate
Report: Croatian population to get smaller,
older
Moderate quake wakes up Croatian town
Frogs stall plans for shopping centre near Krakow
Slovenia to export waste animal fat to Austria
Czech government agrees to Temelin impact
assessment
DEPLETED URANIUM
Lab studies of depleted uranium shells raise
fears of plutonium
WHO experts go to Kosovo to assess DU risks
Council of Europe assembly calls for DU weapons
ban
Yugoslavia to pursue DU case with tribunal
Czech experts fly to Kosovo because of
depleted uranium
EU ACCESSION
Plan for EU environment policy is first with
CEE input
EC launches 'virtual press room' on the
internet
ROUND THE REGION
100 HOSPITALISED IN ROMANIA
AFTER CYANIDE SPILL KILLS
FISH
Twenty-one adults and 79 children have been hospitalised
after eating
fish from the Siret River, which was tainted by cyanide when workers
emptied a vat of poison into a tributary of the river because they wanted
the vat for scrap metal, according to a Jan. 24 report from Agence France
Presse (AFP). Although the patients were suffering from nausea and vomiting
-- and some went blue in the face, as is common in cyanide poisoning
cases -- officials said their conditions were not considered dangerous,
according to AFP.
The Jan. 17 incident was caused by salvage workers
at the Falticeni-based Metadet company, a bankrupt detergent
firm in northeast Romania
whose industrial wastes have fouled the Siret tributary
Somuzul-Mare, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE).
Cyanide concentrations of as much as 130 times the normal level killed
thousands of fish, some of which were apparently sold in nearby markets,
according to reports. Police have seized some 200 kilograms of dead
fish, and hospital officials in the northeastern city of Iasi said the
children's ward is "overwhelmed," with patients, according to
AFP.
Romania was at the
center of a huge cyanide scare last year when cyanide-tainted
water overflowed from a gold mining center in Baia Mare, decimating
the Tisza River in Romania and Hungary, causing what's been termed
the worst environmental disaster since Chernobyl and sparking an international
outcry.
Contact:
Romanian Environment Ministry
tel: (40-1) 410-0246 or
(40-1) 410-0215
e- mail. biodiv@mappm.ro
or the Baia Mare Task
Force
tel : (32- 2) 299-666
e-mail: env-danubetf@cec.eu.int
or the
Eco- Counseling Center of Galati
tel: (40-36) 460-827, (40-36) 435-521.
POLLUTION KILLS ONE TON OF FISH IN
BULGARIAN RIVER
Toxic waste released from a copper ore processing plant has
killed at
least one ton of fish in Topolnitsa River in western Bulgaria, according
to a state radio report carried in the Jan. 24 edition of Radio
Free Europe/Radio Liberty. The report said an inquiry has been
launched.
Contact:
Dr. Evdokia Maneva
Bulgarian Environment Minister
tel: (359-2) 882-577
web: http://www.moew.government.bg.
HUNGARY, ROMANIA ALREADY SOUGHT $10M
IN SPILL-PREVENTION FUNDS
Just days before 100 people in Romania were hospitalised
because cyanide
was dumped into Romania's Siret River, the governments of
Hungary and Romania requested $10 million from the European Union
to prevent disasters from chemical spills, according to a Jan. 17 report
from Reuters. "The problem is that there will be spills in the future.
The threat is very real," Janos Gonczy, the Hungarian government
commissioner for the Tisza River, was
quoted as saying -- before the Siret spill
took place. Gonczy said the two countries have identified seven potentially
hazardous plants and mines which could be cleaned up with EU funds,
according to the report. The request was in reaction to a cyanide spill
in Romania last January that wiped out fish stocks and other life in the
Tisza River.
Contact:
Tom Garvey
Baia Mare Task Force
tel: (322) 299-6660
e-mail: env-danubetf@cec.eu.int
web:http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/enlarg/home.htm
or Dr. Janos Zlinszky
The Regional Environmental
Center for Central and Eastern Europe
tel (36-26 ) 311-199
e-mail: jzlinszky@rec.org
web: http://www.rec.org.
BULGARIA PLANS DAMS TO OFFSET
DROUGHT
Bulgaria plans to build six new dams in 2001 to overcome
water shortages
caused by the continuing drought, according to a Jan. 19
report from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Environment Minister
Evdokia Maneva told journalists the costs of the dams are about
USD 22 million, they will be built by 2005, and they will help supply
water to 450,000 people who are currently rationing water because of
the severe 2000 drought, the report said.
Contact:
Dr. Evdokia Maneva
Bulgarian Environment
Minister
tel: (359-2) 882-577
web: http://www.moew.government.bg
CZECH EXPERTS WORRIED ABOUT FALLING
BIRTH RATE
The Czech Republic's birth rate has dropped from 15 per
1,000 population
in 1970 to 9 per 1,000 today, a decrease of 30 percent in
30 years, according to a Jan. 22 report from Radio Prague. Czech
experts said the demographic is a cause for concern because
an ageing population, a pattern that has been seen in many
Western European countries, creates problems for the labour market,
the report said.
Contact:
Marta Novakova
Director
Czech Environment Ministry Public
Relations
tel: (420-2) 6712-2040.
REPORT:
CROATIAN POPULATION TO GET SMALLER, OLDER
A reduction in birth rate, demographic movements and other
factors, could cause Croatia's
population to drop to 3.5 million, or less, by
the year 2050, according to a translation of the Jan. 22 edition of
Slobodna Dalmacija newspaper.
Croatia, which had an estimated population of
4.5 million in 1999, is not only facing a reduction in overall population,
but an increase in the proportional size of the overall population,
the report said. According to the Slobodna Dalmacija article, the
country's population is being squeezed by a lower birth rate and emigration
that took place during the war in Croatia. Contact:
Jasminka Radovic
Croatian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Physical Planning
tel: (385-1) 610-1551
e-mail: jasminka.radovic@duzo.tel.hr.
MODERATE
QUAKE WAKES UP CROATIAN TOWN
A moderate earthquake woke up
residents near Glina at 3:30 a.m. on
Jan 18, according to the Croatian Foreign Press Bureau. The quake
registered 3.3 on the Richter scale, and its epicentre was in the
Glina-Topusko area, 67 kilometres south of Zagreb, the report said.
The quake only caused minimal material damage and there were
no injuries, the report said.
Contact:
Jasminka Radovic
Croatian Ministry of Environmental Protection and Physical Planning
tel: (385-1) 610-1551
e-mail: jasminka.radovic@duzo.tel.hr.
FROGS STALL
PLANS FOR SHOPPING CENTRE NEAR KRAKOW
A Polish-based construction company halted its work
on a shopping centre near Krakow, after a local environmental group filed
a court petition saying that the work would have a negative impact on rare
frogs living in a nearby pond, according to a Jan 19 report from Reuters.
The builder, Exbud, said on Jan. 17 it had halted work on the project,
worth EUR 50 million, pending further investigation, the report said.
Exbud said it has followed all applicable environmental protection laws
and planned to separate the 1,000-car-lot from the deserted pond by a
fence, according to Reuters.
Contact:
Anna Kalinowska
Polish Ministry of Environmental Protection, Natural Resources and
Forestry, Bureau of Education and Public Relations
tel: (48-22) 825-2003
e-mail: info@mos.gov.pl
SLOVENIA TO
EXPORT WASTE ANIMAL FAT TO AUSTRIA
Slovenia said on Jan. 19 it would export waste
animal fat to neighbouring Austria for incineration, to reduce stockpiles
that had grown even greater amid the mad cow scare in Europe, according to
a report from Reuters. The Slovenian Ministry of Environment said a
domestic firm would store the waste temporarily and export it to an
Austrian cement production plant for incineration over the next three
months, according to the report. Meat and bone meal, processed from
slaughtered livestock and previously used as a high protein feed additive,
is part of the waste that needs to be destroyed, the report said. Slovenia
estimates it will have to spend four billion tolars (USD 17.7 million) for
management of tens of thousands of tons of animal waste, the report
said.
Contact:
Dragica Bratanic
Public relations office of the Slovenian environment ministry
tel: (386-1) 478-7329
web: http://www.sigov.si/mop.
CZECH
GOVERNMENT AGREES TO TEMELIN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT ASSESSMENT
The Czech cabinet agreed Jan. 17 to abide by an
agreement with Austria that requires an international environmental impact
assessment of the controversial Temelin nuclear power plant before the
plant begins commercial power production, according to a Jan. 18 report by
Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe (RFE). The assessment is to be carried out
by an international team of experts who will start working in January, and
are expected to make a report in the spring, before Temelin starts
commercial operations, the report said.
But, in the meantime, tests at Temelin are continuing, and so are
demonstrations against the plant, which has especially drawn criticism
from environmentalists in neighbouring Austria. Early on in the dispute,
both the Czech Republic and Austria called on the EU to help resolve the
matter and a bilateral agreement between the countries said that EU
mediation would be welcome, the Jan. 15 edition of RFE noted. The EC is
now said to be preparing the ground for three-way talks, and EC officials
will travel to Vienna, then Prague and finally carry out an inspection of
the Temelin nuclear power plant, the report said.
Contact:
Josef Puehringer
Chairman
Upper Austrian Parliament
e-mail: LH.Puehringer@ooe.gv.at
or
Karel Bohm
Chairman
Czech State Office for Nuclear Safety
tel: (420-2) 2422-3139
fax: (420-2) 2162 -704
e-mail: karel.bohm@sujb.cz
or
Milos Kuzvart
Czech Environment Minister
tel: (420-2) 6712-2719 or (420-2) 6712- 1111
or
Greenpeace Austria
tel: (43-1) 545-4580
The Austrian government's statement on Temelin is online at:
web: http://www.austria.gv.at/aktuell/database/topnews/german/200008
29_1219.html.
DEPLETED URANIUM
LAB STUDIES OF
DEPLETED URANIUM SHELLS RAISE FEARS OF PLUTONIUM
Swiss scientists studying ammunition fired by NATO at Serb
troops in Kosovo
during the Balkans conflict have confirmed that
some of it contains recycled
uranium, and have expressed
concerns that this might mean the
depleted uranium (DU) shells
also contained plutonium, according
to a Jan. 16 Environment
News Service (ENS) report. NATO
denied that the shells contained
plutonium, according to
reports.
NATO has said it fired 31,000
depleted uranium shells, designed to
pierce tanks and other
armour, during the Kosovo campaign
in 1998 and 1999. Some of
that ammunition still litters Kosovo
and other parts of Yugoslavia,
and seven spent shells brought back
by a UNEP mission to study
DU contained uranium 236, according
to ENS. The Swiss Federal
Institute of Technology (ETH) said
scientists at the Swiss federal
weapons laboratory in Spiez had
detected minute traces of
uranium 236 in areas of Kosovo where
NATO had used depleted
uranium ammunition during fighting
there, according to a Jan. 16
report from Reuters.
This isotope does not occur naturally, so part
of the uranium used in weapons must
have come from nuclear
power plants, the ETH said in a
statement carried by Reuters. It is
"highly likely" some
traces of plutonium would remain in such
reprocessed uranium, the statement
reportedly said. Plutonium
dust is considered much more toxic
and much more likely to
cause cancer when inhaled than
ordinary dust from depleted
uranium, according to the report.
But a NATO representative
maintained that "It has long
been established that there may be
trace elements of U-236 and
plutonium, which is a by-product of
the nuclear industry … according
to independent experts, however,
the levels found are so low as to
present no cause for concern," UN
Wire reported.
Contact:
UNEP Balkan Task Force
UNEP
Spokesperson Tore Brevik
tel: (254-2) 623-292
e-mail: tore.brevik@unep.org
Pekka Haavisto
Chairman of the UNEP Depleted Uranium
Assessment Team
tel: (358-40) 588-4720
e-mail: pekka.haavisto@upi-fiia.fi
web page: http://balkans.unep.ch
or
Damacio Lopez
International Depleted
Uranium Study Team
tel: (1-505) 867-0141
e-mail:
IDUST@swcp.com
or
Dr Radoje Lausevic
Country Representative, Regional
Environmental Center, Country Office
Yugoslavia
tel: (381-11) 620-633
e-mail: recyu@EUnet.yu.
WHO EXPERTS GO TO
KOSOVO TO ASSESS DEPLETED URANIUM RISKS
The World Health Organization said on Jan. 19 that it was
sending
a four-member expert
team to Kosovo in response to concerns
about possible links between
depleted uranium (DU) munitions
used during the 1990s Balkans
conflict and cancer in
peacekeepers stationed there,
according to a Jan. 22 report from
UN Wire. The health experts will
examine information on
populations exposed to DU and will
verify available data on cancer
and leukaemia cases that could be
related to exposure to DU and
other toxic substances, the report
said.
Contact:
WHO
tel: (45 39)
171-717
web: http://www.who.int/.
COUNCIL OF
EUROPE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY CALLS FOR DU WEAPONS BAN
The Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly on Jan. 24
called for a ban on the production and use of weapons containing depleted
uranium and plutonium, according to a report from FreeB92 News. The
assembly also asked NATO and the UN to conduct a new medical survey of
civilians, soldiers, journalists and humanitarian workers who might be
affected -- and promised that countries at risk would be given urgent
technical and financial aid, the report said.
Contact:
Council of Europe
tel: (33-38) 841-2000; or (33-38) 841-2275
web: http://cm.coe.int/.
YUGOSLAVIA TO
PURSUE DU CASE WITH TRIBUNAL
Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica said on Jan.
19 that his decision to meet with chief UN prosecutor Carla del Ponte in
Belgrade was due to his desire to discuss the possibility of trying NATO
at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for war
crimes related to depleted uranium (DU), according to a report from UN
Wire. "Finally the lies on the use of DU became public and that was
the first reason why I changed my mind about seeing Ms. del Ponte,"
Kostunica was quoted as saying. "This is a serious case for The Hague
tribunal."
Contact:
Dr. Dragan Veselinovic
Deputy Minister
Ministry of Environment of Republic of Serbia
tel: (381-11) 3616-368
or
Dr. Snezana Pavlovic
tel: (381-11) 458-222
or
Dr. Miroslav Simic
Public Health Institute Vranje
tel: (381-11) 721-310.
CZECH EXPERTS FLY
TO KOSOVO BECAUSE OF DEPLETED URANIUM
The Czech Republic is sending eight experts to Kosovo to study
the potential threat of depleted
uranium (DU) weapons in areas hit
by the DU ammunition and in places
where the Czech KFOR
contingent operates, according to a
Jan. 21 report from Radio
Prague. The Czech Army promised to
release the results to the
press, the report said. Meanwhile,
according to Radio Prague, the
Czech Army has said it plans to
increase the number of health
tests among soldiers serving in
peacekeeping missions in Bosnia
and Kosovo.
Contact:
Marta Novakova
Public Relations
Director
Czech Environment Ministry
tel: (420-2) 6712-2040.
EU ACCESSION
PLAN FOR EU ENVIRONMENT POLICY IS FIRST WITH CEE INPUT
The European Union's sixth Environmental
Action Programme, the first such document to include input from Central
and Eastern European (CEE) countries, was proposed by the European
Commission on Jan. 24, according to reports. The programme, which was
developed by EC Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom, is meant to
shape EU environmental policy until 2010, by which time many CEE countries
are likely to become members of the EU. The programme, which now goes to
the European Parliament for approval, was criticised by environmentalists
as not being strong enough, especially in areas like regulation of toxic
chemicals, according to reports. The sixth Environmental Action
Plan
is online at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/newprg/index.htm
For more information call the EC's Enlargement DG
tel: (32-2) 299-1500.
EC LAUNCHES
'VIRTUAL PRESS ROOM' ON THE INTERNET
The European Commission has launched a "virtual
press room" on its web site, with the intention of giving journalists
one place to find all the information they need about the EC, according to
a press release from the EC's Press and Communication Service. Material on
the site is likely to include: breaking news, headlines of the day, press
releases, TV broadcasting (streaming) of live events and briefings, an
audio-visual library with stock shots and photos, background material,
calendars, contacts for the press and access to news from other European
Institutions, the release said. The page is available in French and
English and is updated constantly, the release said.
Find the page at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/press_room/
Copyright 2000 by the Regional Environmental Center for Central
and Eastern Europe
Ady Endre út 9-11
2000 Szentendre
Hungary
Tel: (36-26) 504-000
Fax: (36-26) 311-294
E-mail: GreenHorizon@rec.org
Web: http://www.rec.org/
Funded by the European Commission's DG-XI
and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
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