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Page 6, News, Tuesday, Aug. 18, 1992 We don't have to poison lakes and rivers to make paper! Chlorine bleaching must end to save jobs and the environment! The Ontario Government is about to make a decision very important to you! Here is why Greenpeace thinks the NDP must keep its promise to stop pulp mill pollution! Organochlorines cause environmental 1 harm: * Of the approximately 1000 organochlorines which result from chlorine bleaching only 250 have been identified. Of those none have been studied adequately. * Environment Canada's 1991 study found specific chlorinated compounds which cause cancer, fish reproductive failure, are extremely bioaccumulative, are acutely lethal, cause liver damage, weaken fish immune systems, persist in the environment and cause birth defects. * American government scientists recently found that dioxin (an organochlorine) causes cancer, birth defects, immunological problems, slows development, and has no safe level of exposure. * The International Joint Commission on Great Lakes . Water Quality has recommended that governments: "'... develop timetables to sunset the use of chlorine and chlorine containing compounds as industrial feedstocks." 2 The market demands chlorine free paper: * Industry's largest trade journal has run articles entitled: "Chlorine is on the way out", "Chlorine is Dying, We Told you so", and "Totally Chlorine Free: there's no holding back the tide". * The purchasing agency which buys $300 million worth of paper for the U.S. federal government is actively seeking completely chlorine free paper. * Time Magazines Inc. the world's largest publisher has publicly stated that it will use completely chlorine free paper for all of its magazines. Newsweek has invited Greenpeace to co-author its paper policy. * Angus Reid polls have found that 94% of Canadians prefer unbleached consumer paper products. Also Canada's largest magazine producer MacLean-Hunter has committed to using completely chlorine free paper. 3 Regulation will improve competitiveness: * The second mill in Canada to produce chlorine free pulp was using equipment donated by a Finnish company eager to establish clients for its technology. * Studies of the environmental investments of the Canadian pulp and paper industry by a senior Environment Canada economist found that the industry has resisted clean-up spending for decades. As a result, they are now less efficient than their competitors. * Documents from Kimberly-Clark show resisting a clean-up plan in Kapuskasing was part of a strategy to squeeze profit out of the mill, take the profits, and close the mill. * The argument that Ontario's mills are too old to clean up is nonsense. Regulation will force industry to invest in modern chlorine free technology and stay competitive. That saves jobs! ( Non-chlorine bleaching is common: * Pulp and Paper International recently listed 17 Kraft pulp mills using completely chlorine free pulp technologies. The same article lists 10 more mills which are conducting mill scale trials with totally chlorine free technology. * These mills employ combinations of three technologies: hydroger-peroxide, ozone, and enzymes. * While some mills are achieving only moderate brightness, the most recently converted mills are now producing pulp of essentially the same brightness and strength as mills using chlorine. _* The pulp from these mills is being used for top grade applications such as magazine papers. * Louisiana-Pacific Inc. is now producing completely chlorine free pulp in California for the U.S. market. 5 Chlorine free technology is affordable: * One industry spokesperson offered the estimate that to convert one mill to chloriné free technology would cost $100 million, other informal estimates range as low as $60 million. * Between 1980 and 1991 the Ontario pulp and paper industry spent approximately $9 billion on capital upgrades . * Cleaning up the eight Kraft mills represents only two years of normal capital improvements. Going chlorine free to meet market demands is normal capital improvement. * By contrast, a new modern pulp mill such as the proposed Alberta-Pacific mill costs $1.2 billion to build. The whole Ontario industry could be chlorine free for less than the cost of one mill. * To look at it another way, a big mill like the one in Thunder Bay can produce $100 million worth of pulp in less than 4 months. * The Smooth Rock Falls Mill for example maintained an average 25.5% return on investment (profit) from 1988-1990. This enabled them to invest $150 million in expansion. This expansion gave them the technology to go chlorine free! Support chlorine free paper! Save the Environment! Save jobs! To find out more about why Ontario should ban Organochlorine dumping from pulp mills write or call: Greenpeace Canada 185 Spadina Ave. #600 (416) 345-8408 Toronto Ontario Ext. 3048 : MST 2C6 @ GREENPEACE