Aluminum Smelter in Trinidad - Environmental Dangers, Crime, Industrialization

Pollution causes cancer- A letter from the president of the T&T Medical Board - Dr. Steve Smith

That paid advertisement placed in our newspapers by the Alcoa transnational corporation, continues to be my inspiration to challenge the deliberate misinformation it tries to inculcate.

First, the proposed aluminum smelter is being described as being "low-emission, and modern." The repeated reports of the health hazards of such smelters have been met with the argument that the data on which these reports are premised are old data.

Consequently, there has been an attempt to convey the idea that over time there have been significant advances in the manufacturing process of aluminum when it is well known that the technique involved has not chaned much over the last 100 years.

The basic process is one of electrolysis in which aluminum oxide (alumina) is dissolved in molten cryolite and an electrical current is passed through the solution, thereby separating alumina into aluminum and oxygen.

Essentially, four kinds of technology execute this process.

Of 67 operational smelters for which the employed technology could be determined, 36 employed the Soderberg technology, while 29 used the more modern pre-bake method.

Of the 36 Soderberg plants, only five were located outside Latin America, Africa, Estern Europe and Asia. Soderberg plants are notorious polluters.

Our country historically, has not been enforcing its environmental legislation.

Industrial pollution through the discharge of potentially toxic waste from our refineries I am certain, has been contributing significantly to the worsening of our health status as a nation.

Many of these pollutants are potent carcinogens and can indeed, in addition, cause a variety of other illnesses.

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons are implicated in the pathogenisis of fibrosing alveolitis and a scleroderma-like syndrome which I have documented in workers at the refinery in Point Fortin.

On average, breast cancer in Trinidad, accounts for 14.5 per cent of reported cancers in T&T, while breast canecr in the Tobago population accounts for 9.8 per cent of all cancers in T&T.

For colorectal cancer, lung cancer, and cervical cancer, the figures for Trinidad versus Tobago, as a percentage of all cancers in T&T, are as follows respectively:
8.0 per cent Trinidad vs 5.8 per cent Tobago; (all cancers)
for lung cancer Trinidad 7.1 per cent vs 5.1 per cent for Tobago; and
for cervical cancer: 8.0 per cent Trinidad vs 3.8 per cent Tobago.

The one obvious big difference between the environment in Trinidad and that of Tobago is that the latter does not have any oil refineries.

Whether or not this obvious environmental difference might be of significance is yet to be examined, in the light of the known carcinogenic pollutants that are by-products of the process of refining crude oil.

With regard to aluminum smelters, I have previously provided evidence that conclusively shows that aluminum smelter workers are at increased risk of pancreatic cancer.

The presence of diabetes and the prior exposure to pesticides in these previous agricultural workers, enhance this risk. Armstrong B; Hutchinson E: et al; (Environ Health Perspect-01-JUN-2004; 112(9): 970-8) published a meta-analysis of lung cancer risk after exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons.

The study concluded that the average estimated unit relative risk (URR) was increased at a given threshold of occupational exposure, and it varied by industry.

The estimated means in coke ovens, gas-works and aluminum production works were elevated and, on average, similiar. Average URRs in other industries were higher but imprecisley estimated, with those for asphalt workers and chimney sweeps significantly higher than the three above.

Hence, the asphalt worker in Point Fortin is already at risk of lung cancer. Are we going to increase this risk by throwing in an aluminum smelter?

The communities at Cap-de-ville and Chatham have expressed their wish not to have an aluminum smelter built there. If prevailing reports are accurate, the legal requirements for this project have not been met, however the site has been cleared.

This type of assault on the dignity of the people who live in areas designated for this type of project is historically consistent.

For centuries, the Mohawks of Akwesasne- an area straddling the border between present-day New York State and Canada-depended on the bounties of the St. Lawrence River for their livelihood. The river was central to their communal economy based on fishing, hunting, trapping and farming.

For much of the 20th century, three large industrial plants near the reservation used the St. Lawrence River as an open sewer contaminating the water with a cocktail of toxic chemicals.

One of the three companies that have poisoned the St. Lawrence is Alcoa Inc, the same global corporation that operates 228 facilities in 32 countries-including an aluminum smelter at Massena, upstream from Akwesasne.

With the traditional communal economy collapsing, entrepreneurial economies-including gambling and smuggling-have long since been "edging their way in."

Is the present Government willing to accept the social opportunity cost that would result from permitting this transnational corporation to rise roughshod over our rural people?

Dr. Steve Smith