Fluoridation Chemical Company Fined $2 Billion
NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2015
/PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The company that gets rid of highly toxic
wastes by selling them as a "product" to municipal water departments
across the country as cheap fluoridation chemicals has been fined $2 billion for gross violations of the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), reports the Fluoride Action Network (FAN).
Mosaic Fertilizer, LLC, is one of
the largest sellers of a toxic fluoride chemical, "fluorosilicic acid",
that cities add to public drinking water. Fluorosilicic acid is
described by EPA in the Consent Decrees as a "hazardous waste" produced
at Mosaic's fertilizer plants. More than 200 million Americans drink
these wastes every day.
For decades Mosaic has been
selling fluoridation chemicals to public drinking water systems across
the U.S. This Kafkaesque scheme, approved by EPA, benefits the polluter
in the belief that it helps the teeth of the poor, according to FAN.
The fine was levied on October 1st by the EPA and U.S. Department of Justice. These wastes are produced at Mosaic's six phosphate fertilizer plants in Florida and two in Louisiana.
"It's outrageous that Mosaic is
allowed to sell an EPA 'hazardous waste' to dump into the drinking water
used in most major U.S. cities," says FAN scientist Dr. Neil Carman.
Dr. William Hirzy,
also with FAN, added, "This loophole needs to be closed by the EPA. It
was not addressed in the Consent Decrees which allow Mosaic to continue
selling a hazardous waste to the public disguised as a way to boost
fluoride in drinking water."
The RCRA laws govern the storage,
treatment and disposal of hazardous waste. Mosaic's 60 billion pounds
of improperly handled hazardous waste cited by EPA is the largest amount
ever covered by a RCRA settlement. Mosaic's wastes have also caused
huge local environmental problems, due largely to their high fluoride
levels. The fluoride, not captured in pollution control devices and sold
for water fluoridation, ends up in their liquid and solid wastes. Other
toxic constituents include arsenic, lead, cadmium, uranium and radium.
Enormous quantities of these wastes have been stored for years in
so-called gypsum stacks. They will never become non-toxic, and these
open hazardous waste piles have regularly leaked into rivers and
groundwater causing huge fish kills and other problems.
For an overview of the phosphate fertilizer industry see http://fluoridealert.org/articles/phosphate01/
RELATED LINKS
http://www.fluorideaction.net
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