Greenpeace diver using radiation counter and gammaspec on Sellafield's pipeline

Britain is likely to come under fierce criticism this week for its failure to tackle nuclear pollution in the north east Atlantic Ocean. At this week's international meeting of European environment ministers (23rd-27th June), Germany and Norway are expected to be highly critical of the UK for not abiding by promises to reduce radioactive discharges from the controversial Sellafield plant. The expected charge comes despite promises by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott that Britain had shed its tag of 'dirty man of Europe'.

In what will be his first international meeting since his appointment as environment minister Elliot Morley will join ministers from fourteen countries and the EC meeting under the OSPAR convention(1) in Bremen, Germany, to discuss marine pollution in the north east Atlantic and North Sea. This is the first time ministers have met under OSPAR since the historic meeting in Sintra, Portugal, in 1998 which set ground-breaking commitments for action on radioactive discharges.

At the time this was hailed as a great step forward for the environment and John Prescott famously declared, "I was ashamed of Britain's record in the past but now we have shed the tag of the Dirty Man of Europe and have joined the family of nations."

Since then, however, the UK has simply failed to live up to its promises. In fact, discharges from BNFL's Sellafield facility have actually increased and are set to double over the next few years and the UK have actively been obstructing OSPAR's progress to ensure business as usual for Sellafield. Britain has even failed to agree a 'baseline' against which progress could be measured.

Greenpeace nuclear campaigner Jean McSorley said,

"The British government has misled the public and the OSPAR countries with its hollow promises to cut nuclear pollution when in fact Sellafield is to discharge even more radioactive waste into the North Atlantic. Far from shedding the 'dirty man of Europe tag', Britain looks set to become the deceitful man of Europe too.

The only way to tackle Sellafield's discharges into our seas is to shut-down BNFL's dangerous, old and loss-making Magnox reactors. Reprocessing nuclear fuel from these plants causes most of Sellafield shameful pollution record."

Notes
(1) OSPAR Convention deals with marine pollution, in the North East Atlantic and North Sea. Member states are; Belgium, Denmark, Finland France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the European Commission. This year the Ministerial Meeting is being run jointly with that of the Helsinki Convention (HELCOM). HELCOM deals with marine pollution in the Baltic Sea. Member States are: Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, Denmark.

For more information contact Greenpeace Press Office on 020 7865 8255

Greenpeace media briefing

Publication date: May 2000

Summary
The OSPAR Convention is an international treaty charged with preventing and eliminating pollution of the marine environment in the North East Atlantic. The Convention covers the Irish Sea, into which BNFL daily discharges 8 million litres of radioactive waste. It also covers the seas most directly affected by Sellafield's spreading contamination.

The member states of the OSPAR Commission are Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK and the European Union, represented by the European Commission.

Commenting on the decision, Mark Strutt, a toxics campaigner at Greenpeace, said:
"This is the right decision for both football fans and the environment. The seats should be sent to a special waste landfill as the best of several bad options. If the seats were sold and taken home by fans the plastic could erode over time releasing highly toxic cadmium dust into the home environment."

The Head of Marketing for Southampton Football Club, Paul Blanchard, was quoted as saying,
"There is an awful lot of evidence to suggest there is absolutely nothing wrong with cadmium - we don't understand how it is okay for people to sit on them, but not to own them."

In fact there is a complete scientific consensus that cadmium is a highly dangerous toxic metal and the United Kingdom is a signatory to an international treaty (called the OSPAR Convention) to eliminate cadmium pollution.

The Health and Safety Executive have stated that: "Exposure to cadmium can result in serious long term health effects, principally on the lungs and kidneys. Cadmium oxide is classified as a category 2 carcinogen (ie it may be able to cause cancer in humans)"[1].

Paul Blanchard is right in seeing a lower health risk in sitting on the seats in the open air but if taken indoors by souvenir-hunting fans the seats would slowly generate cadmium dust which could pose a toxic threat. Selling off the seats would also be a bad environmental option since cadmium should be collected for proper disposal rather than distributed over a wide area.

Notes for Editors:
[1] HSE Press Release, 22 April 1999

Further information:
Contact:
Greenpeace UK press office 020 7865 8255