The Prague Post Online: News: Chemical plants top polluters in the country

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Chemical plants top polluters in the country

Report pressures companies to curb carcinogens

By Curtis M. Wong
and Hela Balínová
For The Prague Post
October 24th, 2007 issue

Chemical factories surged past power stations to become the Czech Republic’s biggest polluters in 2006, according to a newly published report.

This marks the first time that chemical factories occupied the top slots in the Integrated Pollution Register, data compiled by the Environment Ministry each year to identify the country’s least eco-friendly enterprises in 15 different environmental categories. In previous years, officials say that Czech power plants appeared most often in the top ten of many categories, more than chemical factories and metallurgical companies.

Arnika, a local nongovernmental organization, analyzed the register and announced its findings Oct. 18, following a published report released in late September.

“Factories from the Moravskoslezský and Ústecký regions are among the top polluters in most of the charts,” says Jindřich Petrlík, Arnika’s director. “North Moravian metallurgical works and power stations burning the brown coal in the Ústecký region still maintain a significant share of overall pollution.”

The Integrated Pollution Register charts the flow of sampled chemical substances in the country’s industrial regions. Regional samples are taken to determine how much of a particular chemical substance has been released into the surrounding air, soil and water.

At present, the register contains 72 chemical substances, including persistent organic substances, heavy metals such as lead and copper, freons, halons, and pesticides as well as dust and asbestos.

“These are compounds that can be very problematic for municipalities here in the Czech Republic,” Petrlík says. “Some of them are potentially carcinogenic and very serious. Once a specific enterprise appears on the register, it allows the municipality to put pressure on the particular company, to motivate them to rectify the situation.”

Appearing seven times in the top five of the various categories was ArcelorMittal Ostrava, the country’s largest steel company, which releases the highest amount of carbon monoxide nationwide. Company officials claim that the rankings are inevitable given ArcelorMittal’s size and production level, and are certain that it meets all Czech and European emission limits, as well as the significantly tighter restrictions of the Moravian and Silesian regions.

“ArcelorMittal Ostrava is releasing only one-tenth of the solid pollutants that it did in 1990,” says Jana Dronská, the company’s spokeswoman, in a statement. “Thanks to modernization of the production equipment and ecological investments, the company has reduced the amount of solid pollutants during the past 17 years from 15,424 tons a year to 1,642 tons, or by 90 percent.”

Although ArcelorMittal Ostrava’s latest rankings appear worse than in previous years, Dronská insists that the increase is a result of the company’s recent merger with a subsidiary, and that the amount of chemical emissions has not increased.

The country’s second-highest polluter in 2006 is the Spolana Neratovice chemical factory located about 25 kilometers (15.5 miles) north of Prague, which appeared five times in the top five of various categories, followed by the benzol and tar processing plant DEZA, a.s. in Valašské Meziříčí, which appeared four times, and the Třinecké železárny steel production company in Třinec, which appeared three times.

Effective instrument

Several companies that appeared throughout the 2005 register, including Brisk Tábor and Tusculum Rousínov, no longer rank among the country’s top polluters, after significantly reducing the amount of toxic chemical substances they release.

“It looks like the register seems to be finally working as a very effective instrument and is motivating the enterprises to do something about this issue, and that makes us feel really happy,” Petrlík says. “Each year, companies will promise to decrease their level of emissions, and as you can see, in some cases it actually happens.”

“What is surprising is how quickly companies can reduce their standing on the list by replacing volatile organic compounds with less harmful materials,” he adds. “So the register is having a great impact, but it could be even greater.”

The Czech Republic started gathering data for the register in 2004, after joining the Aarhus Convention guaranteeing public access to information regarding the environment.

“The main target of the register is to inform the public about the pollution that’s taking place right in their neighborhood,” says Environment Ministry spokesman Jakub Kašpar. “It works as a great instrument for environmental inspection. Of course most of these enterprises want to maintain a good reputation, especially in the region where they operate.”

According to Petrlík, the register can also be used for other purposes. Medical experts will find it especially useful, he says.

“For instance, if there’s an accident at an industrial company, you can find out exactly what chemicals will be released,” he says. “If you’re in the medical profession, you can check to see if a certain illness is a reaction to a patient’s exposure to a specific chemical. There’s no other similar database available to the public.”

— Hela Balínová and Naďa Černá contributed to this report.

The writers can be reached at news@praguepost.com

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