Dow Chemcial press release

[charlie.cray@green2.greenpeace.org]

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
          
May 9, 1996
 
Contact: Charlie Cray, Greenpeace Toxics Campaign (312) 563-6060
                  Rick Hind, Greenpeace Toxics Campaign (202) 319-2505
                  Paula Welch, Greenpeace Media (404) 876-8256, x200
 
DOW CHEMICAL DIOXIN EMISSIONS STILL THREAT TO ENVIROMENT AND HEALTH:
Groups say company, shareholders and environment can benefit from an investment
in alternatives  to chlorine.
 
"Your products have affected everybody in the world"
-- Herbert H. Dow Historical Museum, Midland, MI
 
MIDLAND, MI, May 9 (GP) -- Greenpeace joined today with representatives of
various Silicone Implant Survivors organizations, the Vietnam Veterans of
America and INFACT, a national group famous for tracking corporations, to issue
a statement on Dow Chemical's latest environmental health and safety policy,
and to release the Greenpeace report "Dow Brand Dioxin ... Makes You Poison
Great Things."
 
The groups will hold a press conference at the Fairview Inn, 2200 W. Wackerly
near the Eastman Exit off Rt. 10 at 12:00 in Midland, just before the company's
annual shareholders' meeting. 
 
"If dioxin were considered an epidemic it would be called Mad Dow Disease,"
said Charlie Cray, Greenpeace's Midwest Toxics Campaigner.  "The cumulative
buildup of dioxin in the environment, in the food chain -- especially in beef
and dairy products -- and ultimately in our bodies threatens the health of
people and animals across the planet.  As the world's largest manufacturer of
chlorine -- the root source of dioxin -- Dow must assume some responsibility
for the consequent rising rates of cancers, birth defects and immune and
reproductive system disorders." 
 
On April 26, Dow announced its latest environmental policy at a national press
conference in Washington, D.C.  Dow reiterated its 1995 pledge to reduce dioxin
emissions at its facilities by 90%, without having complete baseline data on
how much dioxin is emitted by its large chlorine-production and incineration
facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Midland.  The company's current dioxin
policy still fails to acknowledge that the company has yet to either test many
of its on-site boilers and incinerators for dioxin emissions or submit that
data to US EPA for inclusion in its ongoing Dioxin Reassessment. 
 
"We are happy that Dow is finally willing to acknowledge the dangers of
dioxin," Cray added.  "Otherwise they wouldn't have made an announcement to
reduce it.  The problem is that their new policy still implies that there is a
"safe" level of dioxin that the environment and future generations can handle,
which is not true.  This new policy will continue to put their shareholders at
risk by diverting money away from an investment in alternatives to chlorine,
and place the company at increased risk of potential liability for continuing
to disperse dioxin in the environment."
 
The Greenpeace report is available via the Internet at:
<http://www.greenpeace.org/~usa/reports/dow_brand_dioxin.html>.
 
The Greenpeace Report presents evidence that Dow is likely the world's largest
root source of dioxin, has major investments in facilities whose products
generate dioxin; protects these investments by using corporate resources and
power to influence scientific and public opinion, as well as to shape the
outcome of relevant legislative and regulatory processes, corrupting efforts to
reach an objective scientific and public understanding of dioxin's sources and
public health impacts.
 
                          ###
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
Additions to the Greenpeace Report:
 
** While Dow claims it is setting specific goals for safety and waste
reduction, it is a leading member of the Chemical Manufacturers Association,
which unsuccessfully sued EPA to block the agency from adding additional
chemicals to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) - the system used to track
waste generation and emissions.  "Don't trust us, track us" is a slogan long
bandied about by Dow officials and other corporate supporters of Responsible
Care, the industry's program created to demonstrate environmental
responsibility.  Through their trade associations Dow has also lobbied heavily
for audit privilege legislation, which would shield company records from the
public as well as regulatory agencies.  
 
**  After claiming there are no problems with many of its products, company
officials have lobbied heavily for a tort reform bill to limit punitive damages
from successful lawsuits against the company.  The pattern of cover-up and then
attempted escape from liability has been repeated with a number of Dow
products, including silicone implants and Agent Orange.
 
**  Dow PACs were also one of the largest givers of "soft money" political
contributions in 1995, the majority of which went to Republicans bent on
gutting environmental and occupational safety regulations and enforcement
programs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
 
**  While Dow boasts about participating in the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration's (OSHA's)  Voluntary Protection Program (VPP), the company was

cited by the Washington Post as the main inspiration behind the portion of a
proposed bill that would "free employers regulated by OSHA from other federal
rules that are "potentially in conflict." The proposal is supposed to prevent
double regulation, but critics say it would allow industry to bypass more
extensive rules of other agencies if they can be shown to be remotely similar."
(Washington Post, July 24, 1995).
 
**  Dow's own scientists have agreed that chlorine-free processes are better
for the environment.   For instance, in 1995 Dow acquired the Radian
Corporation whose employees were previously contracted by US EPA to compare
different pulp and paper bleach processes, including totally chlorine-free
(TCF) processes.  ("Comparison of Pollutant Loadings From ECF, TCF and
Ozone/Chlorine Dioxin Bleaching," by Betsy Bicknell and Douglas B. Spengel,
Radian Corporation, and Thomas J. Holdsworth, USEPA, ORD, Cincinnati, Ohio):
 
"AOX loadings decreased with decreasing amounts of chlorine dioxin use.  The

bleach plant AOX loading at the ozone ECF mill is about one order of magnitude
less than the AOX loading at the three chlorine dioxide (ECF) mills.  The
bleach plant AOX loading at the two TCF mills is reduced by another one to two
orders of magnitude." 

 
Dow's response to a report on chlorine use in paper production issued by the
Environmental Defense Fund, in collaboration with Time and other major paper
users, was to downplay its importance to the company.  Perhaps this is because
Dow could benefit from the switch because it makes a product called Versene, a
chelating agent used in totally chlorine-free kraft bleaching processes. 
 
**  In the biggest product spill since the infamous "blob" which occurred from
Dow's Sarnia, Canada facility in the early 1980's, in early April of this year
a Norwegian ship -- the Bow Sun -- accidentally released 585 barrels of
Dow-produced dry-cleaning fluid (perchloroethylene) off Matagorda Island in the
Gulf of Mexico, a prime shrimping area.  Dow has yet to acknowledge that its
Product Stewardship program fails to prevent this and other accidents and
spills.  The market for solvent-free wet cleaning continues to grow,
demonstrating that alternatives to this cancer-causing solvent are more viable
environmentally and economically.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Additions to Greenpeace Report/2
 
** Dow is currently being sued by the State of Michigan and environmental
organizations for exceeding their allowable discharge of chemicals, including
2,4-D.  The problem stems from a breakdown in the company's wastewater
treatment system.
 
** In 1995 Dow announced a 90% dioxin reduction goal without having data on how
much dioxin is emitted by its large chlorine-production and incineration
facilities in Texas, Louisiana and Midland.  The company's current dioxin
policy, announced at the April press conference, still fails to acknowledge
that the company has yet to either test many of its on-site boilers and
incinerators for dioxin emissions or submit that data to US EPA for inclusion
in its ongoing Dioxin Reassessment.  The company is  testing its facility in
Stade, Germany and Fort. Saskatchewan, Canada, but has so far failed to submit
such data to US EPA.  Dow's emphasis on wastewater reductions at its Freeport
site in its 1996 progress report ignores the fact that most of its dioxin comes
from fugitive air emissions and its boilers/incinerators.
 
** Dow boasts that it will invest up to $1 billion for environmental, health
and safety improvements.  Much of this money the company would be required to
spend anyway, in order to comply with new standards scheduled to reduce dioxin
from incinerators at the company's production facilities in Texas, Louisiana
and Midland, as well as for the remediation of contaminated soil. In 1995 Dow

reported its total environmental remediation and restoration costs to be $234,
a quarter of the amount it suggests it intends to spend.
 
$1 billion also pales in comparison to a $6.7 billion subsidy the company
expects to receive from the German government (i.e. taxpayers) to upgrade the
chlorine-producing Buna works in the former East Germany. 
 
For more information contact: Charlie Cray, Greenpeace Toxics, (312) 563-6060
 
 

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