MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Breaking News from South America.

Shell blamed for contamination

Residents of a small village in Sao Paulo, Brazil, with the help of Greenpeace and Non Governmental Organizations will be suing Shell for contaminating a local creek and the underground water supply. Toxicological exams done by the University of Sao Paulo indicate that almost 80% of Paulinia's 181 residents, 80 miles from Sao Paulo, have some kind of chronic contamination originated in industrial waste. Besides, drinking water tests from the local aquifer have shown an abnormal presence of pesticides and heavy metals, considered responsible for the exceptional number of cancer cases, plus injuries to the nervous, reproductive and immune systems of local residents. Shell's Paulinia chemical plant began production in 1977 of dieldryn, aldryn and endryn, three of the most dangerous pesticides used in agriculture and now banned in most of the world. Sales in Brazil were prohibited in 1985, but the Paulinia plant continued production for export until 1990. Shell admitted responsibility for local contamination when in 1994 it sold its agro chemical branch to US Cyanamid, and apparently there's evidence that the Anglo-Dutch company omitted information regarding ditches and burial sites of toxic industrial waste, according to Padua Mello from Tierramérica, a environmental NGO. Although the plant was later sold to the German consortium Basf, "Shell acted in a most irresponsible manner, if not criminal", argues Karen Suassuna Brazil's Greenpeace Toxic Waste coordinator. Shell Brazil representatives argue the "minimum" quantity of toxic waste detected "doesn't threaten human life", and that medical tests on local residents contracted by Shell did not identify dieldryn or endryn. "We're collecting all the possible evidence, we're determined to demand compensation for the residents of Paulinia, besides the fact that multinational companies wouldn't dare act so irresponsibly in their own countries", underlined Suassuna.

Indians campaign against Texaco

Ecuadorian Indian organizations launched an aggressive television campaign in the United States to promote a multi million demand against Texaco for allegedly contaminating Indian reservation land