At least four pollutants and carcinogens were detected in five landfills in Turkey’s southern Adana province, according to a report by Greenpeace Turkey.
Feb 13 2022
http://ahval.co/en-136516
The pollutants are potent enough to affect pregnant women and foetuses, and can be passed down for generations, Greenpeace Mediterranean Biodiversity Project Leader Nihan Temiz Ataş told news website Bianet.
Food chains have already been affected by the chemicals that leaked to ground waters, earth, ashes and sediment, Ataş said.
“I must unfortunately stress that there is no turning back from this,” she added.
The Greenpeace report looked for 69 most toxic substances in landfills that are close to orange groves and corn fields, as well as irrigation channels.
The report details small cattle poisonings and an elevated number of human babies being born with birth defects.
Chemicals have been introduced to the area mostly via imported plastic waste from the European Union and Britain, the report found. Leaks occurred due to the recyclables being scattered out on open fields or burned.
Dioxins and furans are lethal for foetuses and disrupt endocrine systems. Measurements found 400,000 times more of the toxic chemicals in samples compared to unadulterated earth.
Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) were present in soil samples in 30,000 times more concentration compared to the control group. PCBs also disrupt endocrine systems and can pass on to babies via breast milk.
Researchers found 15 times more lead in soil samples than the control group, and more than 30 times cadmium, another carcinogenic.
Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were detected in four of the five landfills, while the carcinogenic PAH named Benzo[a]pyrene was found in levels exceeding safety levels for residential areas. PAHs cause skin lesions, cause liver disease and affect the blood.
Greenpeace called for an end to the practice of exporting recyclable waste, and for Germany, Britain and other exporters to assume costs associated with the disposal and subsequent clean up.
Turkey should allocate more inspectors and resources in general to supervision and prosecution of unlawful practices, the environmentalist group said.
The Health Ministry should launch studies to analyse the damage done to food chains and whether human consumption has been compromised, it added.
Turkey has been the largest importer of plastic waste from Europe since 2019, following a 2018 ban in China.
European plastic waste exported to Turkey increased 196 times since 2004, Bianet said citing Eurostat data. A third of the total waste of 656,960 tonnes of plastic came from Britain in 2020, while Germany sent 136,083 tonnes.
https://libcom.org/files/Bookchin M. Our Synthetic Environment.pdf · PDF file
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