By Pat Roxborough,
Staff Reporter
WESTERN BUREAU:
A SCIENTIFIC laboratory in Florida, USA, is testing samples taken from water, plants, animals and children in the community of Nain, St Elizabeth, to determine if bauxite and alumina dust from the mining complex run by Alumina Partners of Jamaica, (ALPART) has damaged citizens' health.
The samples were taken in November by technocrats affiliated with the opposition Jamaica Labour Party in an attempt to come up with evidence to support a lawsuit the party is considering against ALPART.
The results are expected anytime now, according to Edmund Bartlett, JLP deputy leader and spokesman on environment and tourism.
"We sent the samples off two months ago, so I expect to give the people an update when I visit the communities on Wednesday (April 18)," he said.
ALPART, which operates a bauxite mining plant in neighbouring Nain, is an important player in the Jamaican economy. This year the government is scheduled to collect $2.2 billion from the company by way of the bauxite levy and, according to company officials, Alpart will pump an additional $2.5 billion into the economy through wages, direct purchases and taxes.
The company has for years been compensating the residents in that and other communities for the corrosive damage to their houses caused by its emissions of bauxite and alumina dust.
Some of the residents have had the zinc roof of their houses replaced with alumina sheets, while others receive money from time to time.
Alpart's spokesman, Lance Neita, could not tell The Gleaner how much money had been paid out, but he said that the company's policy was to work with representatives from the communities in a joint approach.
"Reports of occasional emissions associated with any mining or processing operation and complaints or reports of such incidents are handled in a sensitive and concerned manner, based on respect for neighbours and a history of good relations between the company and its various publics. Ex-gratia support or assistance is sometimes offered but these figures are not available," he said.
However, several residents who live in communities outside of the zones of ALPART's 100 per cent compensation policy say the company was not giving them enough compensation.
"One thousand dollars maybe once or twice a year. Foolishness. Foolishness," said Carol Francis, who runs a little shop in Lititz, one of the communities near the alumina refinery.
Ms. Francis, like many of the people in Lititz, suffers from sinusitis, a respiratory disorder that causes mucus to drain through the nasal cavities, making breathing difficult and unpleasant.
Ms. Francis feels that ALPART should foot her medical bills, but that is unlikely, given the company's position regarding accusations that it is responsible for the health problems being suffered by people of St. Elizabeth who catch rainwater from the roofs of their houses for domestic use.
"This is a theory that carries no weight. Numerous tests and studies done all over the world in bauxite/alumina operating areas provide no linkage between the causes of ill health and these operations", Mr. Neita said.
But the community does not agree.
"The court gave a man in Clarendon $1 million because he proved that the bauxite dust mash up him roof," said an old man in the community. "One million, look at that compared to what we getting, plus we don't even start talk about health yet."
"What if that man never went to court," said another woman.
They were referring to the lawsuit that attorney, Maurice Frankson, brought against ALCOA Minerals of Jamaica more than five years ago on behalf of Herbert Broderick, a resident of Hayes, a community near the company's plant in Clarendon. Mr. Broderick's lawyers presented sufficient evidence to prove that the company's mining operations were responsible for damaging his property.
The company challenged the $1-million award in the local appellate court and then at the United Kingdom Privy Council, but both courts ruled in Mr. Broderick's favour.
Now at least 60 more residents, who were waiting on the outcome of Broderick's case before taking action on their own, are awaiting their day in court.
"What is happening is that we have been given a court date for next year. I don't know if we are going to have to prove each and every case or if the company intends to settle. I am yet to get word from them", said Mr. Frankson.
ALCOA's spokesperson was not in a position to comment on the case when The Gleaner visited the plant on Wednesday.
In the meantime, in the absence of scientific proof that ALPART is responsible for their problems, speculation is running wild in St. Elizabeth and the emissions are blamed for everything, from cancer to skin disfigurement.
But Dr. David Thames, who sees patients in the area, told The Gleaner that he could not confirm if this was true.
"You need scientific proof before you can draw such conclusions," he said. "Really and truly there is no evidence of ALPART causing cancer and it's difficult to pinpoint the cause of the sinusitis, which is an allergic problem," he added.
If the test establishes that the water is being contaminated by Alpart's dust emissions, and this is harming the residents, the JLP says it will try to use this to force the company to pay up.
"What we need is proof and that is going to be very difficult. But if we get proof, then we are going ahead with the lawsuit," said attorney-at-law Arthur Williams, a deputy leader of the JLP.
