Published 23 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3907
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3907

News

Health effects of toxic waste dumped in Côte d’Ivoire need urgent examination, UN expert says

John Zarocostas

1 Geneva

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Outstanding health and decontamination problems relating to the dumping in August 2006 of 500 tonnes of toxic waste in the Côte d’Ivoire city of Abidjan by a ship belonging to a Dutch company need urgent attention, an independent investigator has told the United Nations’ human rights body.

"There seems to be strong prima facie evidence that the reported deaths and adverse health consequences are related to the dumping of the waste from [the ship] Probo Koala," said Okechukwu Ibeanu, the UN’s special rapporteur on the adverse effects of the movement and dumping of toxic and dangerous products.

Many people are still experiencing health problems, he said, "especially those living near the dumping sites."

Professor Ibeanu told reporters that the long term environmental consequences of the incident are "yet to be determined" and that the effect of the cocktail of chemicals on human beings "remains unknown."

"Adverse effects on childbirth . . . [Full text of this article]


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