Rob Edwards

Scotland will stick to EU environmental law, says minister

from Sunday Herald, 24 July 2016

The Scottish Government is promising that it will abide by European Union (EU) environmental law protecting wildlife and preventing pollution despite Brexit.

The cabinet secretary for the environment, Roseanna Cunningham, is pledging not to weaken a raft of Brussels legal measures regarded as crucial for conserving plants and animals and keeping air, water and land clean and healthy.

Her promise comes on the eve of a summit with environmental groups near Perth this week. It is Holyrood’s first clear commitment on green legislation since the UK voted last month to exit from the European Union, and has calmed campaigners’ worst fears.

Conservationists had voiced concerns that Brexit could lead to the weakening of vital laws governing nature areas and the management of fisheries. In the past the Scottish Government has come under fire for breaching European directives on wildlife, air pollution and dirty beaches.

But now Cunningham is seeking to reassure environmentalists. “It’s not always easy for the Scottish Government to comply with EU environmental regulation,” her spokesman told the Sunday Herald.

Scottish shellfish are contaminated by radioactive waste from Sellafield

from Sunday Herald, 20 December 2015

Radioactive waste from the Sellafield nuclear plant in Cumbria is contaminating shellfish hundreds of kilometres away on the west coast of Scotland, according to a new scientific study.

Scottish researchers discovered traces of radioactive carbon discharged from Sellafield in the shells of mussels, cockles and winkles as far north as Port Appin in Argyll, 256 kilometres from the notorious nuclear plant.

The findings are a “wake-up call” for anyone who thinks pollution from Sellafield is yesterday’s problem, say campaigners. Sellafield, however, stresses that the contamination is well below safety limits.

The study was carried out by a team of scientists from the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre in East Kilbride and the Scottish Association for Marine Science in Oban. It has been published online in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity.

The scientists found raised levels of radioactive carbon-14 in shellfish sampled at Port Appin, at Maidens in South Ayrshire and at Garlieston and Kippford on the Solway coast of Dumfries and Galloway. Mussels were most contaminated “due to the surface environment they inhabit and their feeding behaviour,” they said.

Major wildlife conference under fire for corporate “greenwash”

from Sunday Herald, 22 November 2015

A major international conference in Edinburgh this week aimed at conserving wildlife is facing protests for helping big companies “profit from greenwash”.

The World Forum on Natural Capital to discuss how businesses can value and protect nature has run into fierce criticism from campaign groups in Scotland and India for hosting companies with controversial environmental records.

Amongst those due to give a presentation is Mary Draves, a global director of the US chemical giant, Dow. Critics hold the company responsible for the fallout-out from 1984 Bhopal disaster in India, which caused 25,000 deaths.

Carina Mueller, a scientist from the UK-Dutch consumer goods firm, Unilever, is also scheduled to address the conference. The company has been attacked for failing to properly clean up mercury contamination and compensate former workers at a thermometer factory in Kodaikanal in South India.

The World Forum on Natural Capital is organised by the Scottish Wildlife Trust and backed by other major environmental groups. Due to take place on 23-24 November in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre, it is expected to attract over 500 delegates from more than 35 countries.

Air pollution kills more than 3,500 people a year in Scotland

from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

The official death toll from the toxic fumes that belch from vehicle exhausts has nearly doubled, suggesting that more than 3,500 people die every year from air pollution in Scotland.

New figures from the UK government estimate for the first time the number of deaths blamed on nitrogen dioxide gas, as well as tiny sooty particles. Taken together these boost the number of annual deaths across the whole of the UK from 29,000 to over 50,000.

Environmentalists estimate that this translates to at least 3,500 deaths a year in Scotland, compared to a previous estimate of 2,000. They also attack new Scottish Government proposals to tackle air pollution as “incomplete, vague and lacklustre”.

Air pollution from cars, vans, buses and lorries can trigger heart attacks, strokes and cause infections. The emissions aggravate lung diseases, and can worsen the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people with asthma.

The new estimates of deaths were prompted by a Supreme Court ruling in April requiring the UK government to take urgent action to tackle illegal levels of air pollution in cities. Last week both the UK and Scottish governments launched new public consultations on their plans.

We must curb killer pollution from cars

Editorial from Sunday Herald, 20 September 2015

When Liz Ashton lived on a busy, polluted street in Edinburgh, she was worried about dying. “It frightens me that when I lived in the city centre I could have had a fatal asthma attack,” she said.

She is just one of the many thousands of reasons why Scotland needs to get serious about air pollution. For years, the average levels of toxic fumes on dozens of urban streets have exceeded legal safety limits.

Health standards for nitrogen dioxide and tiny sooty particles that Scotland should have met in 2010 have been breached, and then breached again. In April, after a long court battle, the UK Supreme Court ruled that governments had to take urgent action.

Now we learn that the official death toll from the pollution is much higher than previously acknowledged. Instead of killing 2,000 people a year in Scotland, evidence from government scientists suggests it could be killing at least 3,500 a year.

Whatever the number is, it is unacceptable. As critics have pointed out, if thousands of people were dying as a result of treatable diseases, crime or drugs, ministers would declare a national emergency.

Diageo under fire for failing to meet targets to cut pollution

from Sunday Herald, 23 August 2015

Diageo, the £11 billion drinks giant and world-leading whisky producer, has admitted breaching seven out of eight of its environmental targets to cut pollution and waste.

The British multinational, responsible for at least 24 Scottish whisky brands including Johnny Walker, Bells, J&B, Talisker and Langavulin, failed to cut waste water contamination, climate emissions and landfill waste as it promised. The company, which made over £3 billion profit in 2014, also owns Guinness, Smirnoff, Baileys, and Captain Morgan.

One of Diageo’s most polluting plants - with some of the highest emissions of any industrial site in Scotland - is the Cameronbridge grain distillery at Leven in Fife. The plant’s carbon dioxide pollution has risen in recent years to a record high.

Environmentalists have attacked the company’s “shoddy” performance, alleging that it is damaging the clean image on which its whisky depends. Diageo argued, however, that its targets were “very stretching” and it had significantly reduced its environmental impact.

In 2008 Diageo set itself eight targets to achieve in 2015, aimed at significantly improving the environmental sustainability of its business. But its latest annual report reveals that it has only managed to meet one of them – improving water efficiency by 30 per cent.

‘Hello, can you help me? Am I allowed to burn down my house?’

from Sunday Herald, 9 August 2015

My fridge is a biohazard, my bathwater has turned lurid green and I don’t know how to dispose of my false teeth. And am I allowed to burn down my house?

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has revealed some of the more bizarre requests for help received recently by staff at its 24-hour emergency call centre at Holytown in North Lanarkshire.

The centre, which usually deals with floods, waste dumping, pollution and a host of other serious problems, occasionally has to cope with calls from people anxious about less earth-shattering matters. Staff have learnt to “expect the unexpected,” Sepa says.

Amongst the 73,000 phone calls the centre has taken in the last year, some have left trained operators bewildered. One worried caller asked if Sepa inspectors could come to his house to check for “airborne hazards” from a fridge, because everything inside had turned black while it had been switched off for three months.

A mother rang the emergency number, frantic because her bathwater had turned a lurid shade of green. It turned out that the woman’s teenage daughter had spiked a shampoo bottle with hair dye.

An elderly gentleman called up asking how he could safely dispose of an old pair of false teeth. A singing group asked if their annual party would have any environmental health implications, while one woman reported slugs in her kitchen.

Bhopal: the long flight from justice

from Hesamag, July 2015

On a hot and hectic street in the Indian city of Bhopal, the flames licked up the two giant corporate logos. The blue of Union Carbide and the red of Dow Chemical Company, with added skulls, were incinerated to nothingness within seconds. 

Just a few metres away, across a high security wall, was the cause of the angry effigy-burning: the derelict and overgrown pesticide factory that leaked toxic gas 30 years ago and has killed more than 25,000 people.

The disaster at Union Carbide’s chemical works in Bhopal, in the crowded, poverty-stricken heart of India, on the 3 December 1984 was one of the world’s worst industrial accidents. It has since become one of the world’s grossest examples of environmental injustice.

Union Carbide and the US chemical giant that took it over in 2001, Dow, are fugitives from justice. Over the decades, they have repeatedly refused to appear before Indian courts to answer criminal charges against them. They have never apologised.

It is no wonder that they were targets for the fierce and passionate mass protests that took place in Bhopal on the 30th anniversary of the disaster in December 2014. “These days a corporation’s image is everything so we wanted to hit them where it hurt most,” said leading Bhopal campaigner, Sathyu Sarangi.

Supreme Court orders ministers to clean up killer air pollution

from The National, 30 April 2015

Environmentalists claimed a “huge victory” yesterday as the Supreme Court ordered the UK government to take “immediate action” to cut lethal air pollution from traffic in Glasgow and 15 other cities.

The ruling from the UK’s highest court will also put pressure on the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council to do more to reduce toxic exhaust fumes, blamed for killing over 2,000 people every year in Scotland.

Nitrogen dioxide gas and tiny sooty particles belched out by cars, lorries and buses can cause asthma, bronchitis, lung cancer and breathing problems. The pollution can also trigger heart attacks and strokes.

A study by the World Health Organisation on Tuesday estimated that air pollution is costing Europe over a trillion pounds a year. That includes the costs of over 600,000 premature deaths a year across the continent, and many more illnesses.

In a unanimous verdict from five leading judges in London, the Supreme Court agreed to issue a mandatory order requiring Westminster to prepare and deliver new air quality plans to the European Commission before the end of 2015.

Glasgow’s failure to cut lethal air pollution to go on trial

from The National, 14 April 2015

The failure of Glasgow to curb air pollution from traffic - blamed for killing hundreds of people every year - is to be challenged in the UK Supreme Court later this week.

The environment group, Client Earth, is taking the UK government to court for allowing lethal and illegal levels of toxic gases belched out by vehicle exhausts to persist in the city centre.

Glasgow is one of 16 UK cities breaching European air pollution law. Levels of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause breathing problems, are expected to remain in breach of safety limits on the city’s streets until 2025, 15 years beyond the original deadline.

Westminster’s official air pollution warning service predicts that nitrogen dioxide levels in Glasgow this year could be almost twice the legal limits. In recent years Hope Street and Dumbarton Road have consistently ranked as some of the worst polluted streets in Scotland.

An expert report last year backed by the UK Department of Health estimated that pollution from tiny, sooty particles emitted by traffic caused more than 300 premature deaths a year in Glasgow. A rating last month by international environmental groups awarded the city an ‘F’ for its poor efforts in tackling the problem.

Exposed: INEOS’s 34 heath and safety breaches at Grangemouth

from Sunday Herald, 15 March 2015

Oil and chemical plants run by INEOS at Grangemouth have breached health and safety regulations 34 times in the last four years, been officially condemned as “poor” for pollution three years in a row, and seen more than 20 staff injured since the start of 2015.

An investigation by the Sunday Herald has uncovered the Swiss-based petrochemical giant’s record of mishaps, leaks and failures to control risks for workers.

The revelations have prompted criticisms from environmentalists and trade unionists, who claim that safety at Grangemouth has deteriorated. They will also increase anxieties over INEOS’s bid to win community and political support for fracking shale gas across the central belt.

The fears are, however, dismissed as “baseless” by INEOS. Grangemouth has one of the best safety records in the chemicals industry and 2014 was its best ever year, the company says.

However, failing to reduce the dangers of pipes degrading in 2011 could have led to a major accident, according to the government's Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

INEOS has been served 11 legal enforcement notices by the HSE for breaking the rules 34 times at Grangemouth between 2011 and 2014. This compares to just three notices over the previous four years from 2007 to 2010.

INEOS charm offensive on fracking under fire

from Sunday Herald, 15 March 2015

A major new charm offensive due to be launched this week by the £37 billion petrochemical giant, INEOS, to win Scotland round to fracking - but the public relations campaign has already run into fierce flak before even getting off the ground.

Environmentalists and politicians have attacked the forthcoming campaign involving London-based public relations companies as “PR spin” and “slick marketing” designed to divide communities.

A company called Mediazoo has invited journalists to Grangemouth on Tuesday to meet senior INEOS executives over sandwiches. There will be an announcement on “plans for a major new Scottish shale gas community engagement programme,” the invitation says.

The announcement is expected to include more details on an existing promise to pay hundreds of millions of pounds to landowners and communities around fracking sites. There will also be a meeting of up to 80 community councillors at Grangemouth on Thursday.

The invitation to the 90-minute “roundtable briefing” from INEOS’s communications manager, Richard Longden, describes the extraction of shale gas by the hydraulic fracturing of underground rock is “a very emotive subject”. The company will explain how it “has the potential to benefit the economy and everyday lives of people in Scotland,” he says.

Exposed: how the whisky and golf industries broke the rules on water

from Sunday Herald, 18 January 2015

Whisky and golf, two industries that help define Scotland around the globe, have been exposed as major environmental offenders by a government watchdog. 

The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (Sepa) has condemned the performance of distilleries and golf courses across the country as “poor” because they have broken the rules by taking more water than permitted. Farmers and other businesses have also come under fire. 

Sepa has further criticised more than 200 operators for failing to say how much water they used. They include more farmers, golf courses and distilleries, as well as Edinburgh Zoo, Scone Palace in Perth and the US property tycoon, Donald Trump.

Sepa regulates the removal of water from streams, rivers, lochs and the ground to protect wildlife, limit pollution and ensure that the precious natural resource is fairly shared. It will take legal enforcement action against businesses that persistently fail to comply, it warns.

When Sepa published its 2013 assessments of the environmental performances of Scottish businesses last November, it kept the names and ratings of 961 water operations secret “for reasons of national security”. But it has now released a list of the assessments to the Sunday Herald in response to a request under freedom of information law.

Revealed: the 23 streets across Scotland where it’s dangerous to breath

from Sunday Herald, 11 January 2015

Toxic fumes from vehicle exhausts are breaching legal safety limits on 23 busy streets and endangering the health of people across Scotland, according to the latest government monitoring.

Hazardous concentrations of nitrogen dioxide and tiny particles belched out by cars, lorries and buses have been found in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen, Greenock, Rutherglen, Kilmarnock, East Kilbride, Falkirk, Perth, Crieff and elsewhere in 2014. 

On 11 streets the annual average levels of pollutants have increased between 2013 and 2014. The worst pollution was detected on Hope Street in Glasgow where nitrogen dioxide levels were 62 per cent above the European legal limit meant to have been met five years ago (see table below).

Health experts say the levels are high enough to cause breathing problems, heart attacks and cancer. They attribute more than 2000 deaths a year in Scotland to the pollution, far more than are killed by road accidents, drugs or alcohol. 

Air pollution, they say, has now become a major public health crisis. It is estimated to cost the National Health Service in Scotland up to £2 billion every year.

Pollution fears from new supermarket in Edinburgh

from Sunday Herald, 11 January 2015

The dangerous levels of air pollution endured by hundreds of schoolchildren in a suburb of Edinburgh will be made worse by traffic from a planned new Waitrose supermarket, say local residents.

The up-market retailer is due to submit a planning application later this month for a major new store on St John’s Road in Corstorphine. But official figures show that this is already one of the most badly polluted streets in Scotland. 

The average level of the toxic exhaust gas, nitrogen dioxide, in the air during 2014 was 60 microgrammes per cubic metre. This was five per cent higher than in 2013, 50 per cent higher than the five-year-old legal safety limit and the second highest in Scotland after Hope Street in Glasgow.

Becky Lloyd, a 46-year-old mother of two who lives locally, pointed out that the number of car parking spaces for shops would increase from 15 to 140. “I fail to see how bringing more cars and delivery lorries into the area can possibly be anything other than a nightmare for residents,” she told the Sunday Herald.

Obama under pressure to admit US complicity on Bhopal gas disaster

from Sunday Herald, 07 December 2014, from Bhopal

The former US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger, put pressure on the Indian government to agree a legal settlement that let the US chemical company, Union Carbide, off the hook for the 25,000 people killed by the toxic gas disaster in Bhopal 30 years ago.

A letter released under freedom of information legislation reveals that the late Indian steel magnate, J R D Tata, wrote secretly to the Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in May 1988 conveying Kissinger’s concern about the delays in reaching agreement on the compensation to be paid to victims. At the time Kissinger was an adviser to Union Carbide and other major US corporations.

Kissinger thought the company was prepared to make a “fair and generous settlement” which “would effectively counter any attack or criticism” because it was more than interim amounts suggested by Indian courts, Tata wrote. In February 1989, the Indian government agreed a settlement for $470 million. 

This has since been widely derided as completely inadequate given the horrendous scale and persisting legacy of the disaster. Crucially, as part of the deal, all charges against Union Carbide and its managers were dropped – though this was subsequently overturned by India’s Supreme Court in 1991.

The letter, headed “strictly personal and confidential” and obtained by Bhopal activists, is important because it confirms what many have long suspected: that the US and Tata were complicit in allowing Union Carbide to evade responsibility for the world’s worst industrial accident on 3 December 1984.

The agony of the Bhopal toxic gas disaster 30 years on

from Sunday Herald, 07 December 2014, from Bhopal

It was Sajid’s furry, orange babygrow stretched out inside the black museum case that triggered the agony. Oblivious of the people crowded around, his mother, Bismilla Bee, started shaking with loud sobs, rising and falling, as the painful memories came flooding back.

Her son died 30 years ago last week in the babygrow, choking on the poison gas that spewed from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India. She donated it to the museum, but when she saw it on display, her grief became suddenly overwhelming.

Bismilla Bee was at the official opening of the Remember Bhopal Museum to mark the 30^th anniversary of the horrific disaster. The museum, originated and curated by survivors and activists, features a series of other tragic personal reminders: a battered doll, an old cricket bat, a bridal dress, a walking stick, a stethoscope and a pair of crutches.

It is also full of moving testimonies. Bhopal resident Ruby Parvez talks about how she still cries and trembles when she thinks about that awful night. “We were sleeping and I felt a burning sensation in my eyes, and felt dizzy,” she says.

“The burning sensation increased and we started to feel breathless. We started to panic seeing heavy smoke. Our neighbour said ‘wake up, there is a gas leak and we have to escape or we will die.’”

New film pins blame for Bhopal disaster on company

from Sunday Herald, 07 December 2014, from Bhopal

The man behind a new blockbuster film launched in India on Friday telling the grim story of the Bhopal toxic gas disaster has taken out multi-million dollar insurance against being sued.

Director Ravi Kumar is worried about facing legal action from Dow, the US chemical company that took over Union Carbide, the managers of the pesticide plant that leaked 30 years ago and killed 25,000 people in Bhopal.

His film, Bhopal: A Prayer for Rain, starring the West Wing actor, Martin Sheen, pins the blame for the accident on Union Carbide. It ends by pointing out that the company has never apologised.

Kumar did not disclose the value of the libel insurance, though it was “a significant amount”, he said. “Producers of the film are taking no chances. We feel pressure from a lot of groups.”

Sheen plays the Union Carbide chairman in 1984, Warren Anderson, one of the most hated men in India. A fugitive from Indian justice for decades, Anderson died in Florida on 29 September.

Trade union support for thousands still suffering from Bhopal gas disaster

from The National, 03 December 2014, from Bhopal

The campaign for justice for survivors of the world’s worst industrial accident in Bhopal, India, 30 years ago today has been backed by a powerful alliance of trade unions and city councils from Scotland.

A delegation of six trade unions, including Unite, Unison and Communication Workers Union, is in Bhopal this week to show their solidarity with the local communities who have been fighting to make the US chemical giant, Dow, pay for the horrific accident.

Shortly after after midnight on 3 December 1984 a highly toxic gas, methyl isocyanate, leaked from a tank at a pesticide plant in the middle of the crowded city of Bhopal. The regional government put the immediate death toll at 3,787, but local people say the real number was more like 8,000.

The gas seared the lungs, and burnt the eyes of anyone exposed. In the three decades since, campaigners say 25,000 have died from chronic diseases caused by lingering contamination, and 150,000 are still chronically ill.

At the time of the accident, the plant was owned by the US company, Union Carbide, which was bought by Dow in 2001. Since then Dow has been targeted by campaigners and become embroiled in a series of court cases seeking compensation.

House of Lords fails to block plan for fracking under homes without consent

from The National, 27 November 2014

The entire House of Lords has been accused of missing the chance to block the UK government’s plan to allow companies to frack for gas under people’s homes without their consent.

The Scottish National Party (SNP) has pointed out that an objection from a single peer in the House of Lords could have stymied the government amendment removing the right of property owners to object to drilling under their land. The SNP does not sit in the Lords on principle. 

According to the standing orders of the House of Lords Grand Committee, a single voice against an amendment results in its rejection. But when the committee considered the fracking proposal on 14 October it went through without objection.

If it becomes law, the proposal would let companies prospecting for underground gas or oil to drill 300 metres or more below properties across the UK without requiring the owners’ permission. The Grangemouth multinational, Ineos, announced last week that it was investing up to £640 million in fracking for shale gas, and has a licence to explore 742 square miles of central Scotland. 

Fracking is a way of fracturing rocks deep underground by injecting high-pressure liquids into them so that trapped shale gas can escape. There are also highly controversial plans to exploit other forms of underground gas, including coalbed methane in Falkirk and coal gasification under the Firth of Forth.