Leaked emails reveal deadly cover-up of dumped toxic waste
By DAVID LEIGH, September 18, 2009 LEAKED internal emails have revealed a massive cover-up by the British oil trader Trafigura, in one of the worst pollution disasters in recent history. The emails obtained by The Guardian prove that Trafigura, which abruptly announced an offer to pay compensation to 31,000 West African victims, was fully aware that its waste dumped in Ivory Coast was so toxic it was banned in Europe. Thousands of West Africans besieged local hospitals in 2006, and a number died, after the dumping of hundreds of tonnes of highly toxic oil waste around the country’s capital, Abidjan. Local autopsy reports on 12 victims appeared to show fatal levels of the poisonous gas hydrogen sulphide, one of the waste’s lethal byproducts. Trafigura has publicly insisted for three years that its waste was routine, harmless and ”absolutely not dangerous”. It has until now denied compensation claims, and its lawyers repeatedly threatened anyone who sought to contradict its version. It launched a libel case against the BBC, forced a ”correction” from The Times, demanded The Guardian delete articles, and on Wednesday tried to gag journalists in the Netherlands and Norway with legal threats. But the dozens of damning internal Trafigura emails which have come to light reveal how traders were told in advance that their planned chemical operation, a cheap and dirty process called ”caustic washing”, generated such dangerous waste that it was widely outlawed in the West. The documents reveal that the London traders hoped to make profits of $US7 million ($7.98 million) a time by buying up what they called ”bloody cheap” cargoes of sulphur-contaminated Mexican fuel. They decided to try to process the fuel on board a tanker anchored offshore, creating toxic waste they called ”slops”. …
