File - Shop Conscious

5/26/13
- A crime against the environment - Health and consumer lifestyle - NRK
Health consumption and lifestyle
26/05/2013
FISH O IL IN NO R W EGIAN O MEGA 3 C APSULES:
- A crime against the environment
W ade d W ASTE GR EASE: Pre viously the fishe rm e n. Now the y survive by sifting de bris from fish oil industry, and se ll
fat as fue l. W ith gre at risk to the ir own he alth.
Photo: Harald Erak e r / NR K
While Norwegians eat Omega 3 capsules in order to stay healthy, leading fish oil
capsules are made of the great environmental degradation and health problems in
Peru.
TOR RISBERG
tor.ris berg @ nrk.no
HA RA LD ERA KER
fbi@ nrk.no
Publishe d 09/11/2011 5:57 p.m .. Update d 11/11/2011 24:40.
- You would not be allowed this in Europe. Why should you be able to do that in a country in
the developing world? asks Peruvian Maria Elena Foronda Fano.
The head of the environmental organization Natura was born and raised in the port city of
Chimbote in Peru, where fish oil mills located close together along the beach.
Most of Omega-3 capsules we eat here in Norway for health reasons, are in fact not
made of fish oil from cod in Lofoten. Chances are that they are instead derived from
anchovies that are caught in Peru.
- But why are we treated as third-or fourth-class citizens? reads the question from Foronda
Fano.
World's
Peru is the world's largest producer of oil. But for people and health locally, this industry added
www.nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.7863243
1/4
5/26/13
- A crime against the environment - Health and consumer lifestyle - NRK
from healing.
In Consumer inspectors (FBI) documentary from the coast of
Peru, tells Foronda Fano of serious health problems and
environmental damage caused by fish oil factories. And in an
industry that violates the laws and regulations.
Among the actors she and other critics believe destroys health and
nature are strong Norwegian interests and companies.
Dead Sea
Through their own eyes see how the FBI emissions from fish oil
factories has destroyed sea life.
In Paracas bay outside the city of Pisco, where among others
Norwegian owned Austral Group factory, dive NRK cameraman with
green shoulder Stefan Austermühle at ten meters depth.
All they found was a one meter thick slamlag caused by
emissions from factories on the beach.
Photo: Photo:
www.olourbox .com
Every year it produced 1.005 million
tons of fish oil in the world.
76 percent of all the oil used in animal
feeding.
17 percent is the omega-3 products.
7 percent ends up as fuel or other
technical oil.
Peru is the world's largest producer of
fish oil (estimated 325,000 tonnes in
2011)
Nordic countries (here: Denmark,
Faroe Islands, Iceland and Norway )
produces second most, with 198,000 tons.
Chile is the third largest producer
countries (150,000 tons annually).
Source: The International
Fishmeal and Fish Oil
Organisation (IFFO)
- The sea floor smells of sulfur. It is full of it. Gelatinous,
bacterial saturated organic matter. There is no life there, says
Austermühle and shows a plastic bag full of the smelly sludge from the bottom.
German Austermühle the conservation organization Mundo Azul has worked with sea pollution
in Peru in the last ten years.
In Chimbote, where some fifty fish oil factories over the years has released waste directly into
the bay, conditions are so bad that neither Austermühle or FBI photographer would dive there.
ALSO READ: Concern rancid fish oil
2.5 meters slamlag
- There are no figures on the amount of organic matter that is released. We do not know how
much it can be about a year, says biologist and faculty leader Romulo Loayza at Nacional del
Santa University in Chimbote.
- But IMR published in 2000 the results of electro-acoustic studies showing that it can
be accumulated about 53 million cubic meters of sludge on the bottom. And in some
parts of the bay mud is created over 2.5 meters thick, said Loayza.
The pollution has made life difficult for many of the coastal fishermen. The fisherman Valter
Gamboa says that all life is dead in the water where he used to fish outside factories including
Austral Group, the Norwegian-owned company also has a factory in Coishco, the neighboring
town of Chimbote.
- They emit caustic soda. To find the fish we have much further out. Maybe three to four
hours. There are fish in the vicinity, the way it used to be, says Gamboa.
Vasser in waste fats
On the beaches outside the high walls of the factory in Chimbote reveals several places an
incredible sight.
Poor men, women and children's wading and without shoes in mill waste. The waste
flows through a clever system of artificial streams and pools.
The odorous liquid mass comes from holes in waste pipes, which the poor people
themselves have created.
www.nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.7863243
2/4
5/26/13
- A crime against the environment - Health and consumer lifestyle - NRK
Previously they lived by fishing. However, fish oil industry's
destruction of the Gulf of Chimbote has forced them to find other
ways of life.
Now skim the fat waste of scoops and bare hands, and sell it as fuel.
This activity also reveals what kind of waste industry passing through
the tubes into the sea.
- A crime
- We are 600 families who live off this. Most are fishermen. The
problem is that companies began releasing acid and soda in the ocean.
We had to give us because they polluted the sea. Therefore, we could
no longer engage in fishing, says Oscar Eduardo Saenz Armas, one of
the leaders of the poor "fat workers".
- All agencies are helping to pollute the sea. If any of them say
that they do not pollute, then they are lying, he adds.
W aste O il from the
production of fish oil in Pe ru.
Photo: Harald Eraker /
NRK
- This is the worst industry has done to the bay and the city. It
is an environmental crime. A crime against nature, said Maria Elena Foronda Fano from
the environmental organization Natura.
Just outside the factory walls of Copeinca company, which has Norwegian interests, hits FBI
Ricardo Milla. He also skim the fat from the waste that comes out of a pipe in the wall of the
company and runs right on the beach.
Milla says that for years he has lived here at the beach and lived off of the waste from
Copeinca. Generally, emissions from fish oil factory at night, he said.
- Adverse consequences
Sm ok e from fish oil factorie s have be com e a m ajor he alth proble m for the
population along the coast of Pe ru.
Photo: Harald Erak e r / NR K
FBI are taken both nursery and home to people that tell about health problems due to the
smoke that plants emit. Many of the children have visible sores and rashes all over the body.
County Medical Officer in the Ancash region, where Chimbote is, sitting with records and
overview of population health. He should know what he's talking about.
- When you inhale the smoke, causing the infections and allergic reactions. The most
serious is the decline of respiratory capacity in the form of pulmonary fibrosis.
Children are most vulnerable and most at risk of breathing problems, said Dr. Ramon
www.nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.7863243
3/4
5/26/13
- A crime against the environment - Health and consumer lifestyle - NRK
de la Cruz.
- It is a bother to stay here. We have major health problems to contend with.
Everything is black. The clothes are also black. Everything. And it smells bad.
Everything smells bad, says Bertha Rengito, who lives right by the fish oil factory in
Chimbote.
She shows us plants and shrubs in her garden which is literally black with soot from pollution.
Dismissing criticism
With its subsidiary Austral Group Vats Seafood is a major player in Peru, with a large fishing
fleet and six fish oil factories.
Vats would not be filmed or interviewed by the BBC, either in Peru or Norway. But a Comment
Printer Chairman Helge Singelstad that he did not recognize themselves in the description of
neither Austral Group or industry in Peru.
Singelstad refers to that if it is taken up fish under a certain size, the fishing company be fined
even with very limited deviation.
"It is in our opinion inspirational investing a place where generations have
documented that management is sustainable. In recent years system improvements do
not make this less inspiring.
We are very pleased that the government of Peru has established a sustainable and
internationally recognized management and control regime for its fisheries, "it is stated
in the commentary from Austevoll Seafood.
Openness
The company Copeinca meetings however criticism with openness, and lying flat. "We have
promised to improve", it is stated in their response.
And the Norwegian capsule manufacturer Ayanda indicates that the objective is not only local
minimums, but that works to ensure that environmental measures in Peru should be on par
with those of Europe.
Read industry's response to the criticism here.
www.nrk.no/helse-forbruk-og-livsstil/1.7863243
4/4