Development & Aid, Environment, Europe, Headlines, Health

ENVIRONMENT-ROMANIA: That Lethal Name, Copsa

Claudia Ciobanu* - IPS/IFEJ

BUCHAREST, Apr 6 2007 (IPS) - In Copsa Mica the cemetery, a heavy metal factory and a complex of apartment buildings for the factory workers are all close together. To the residents the message seems to be that they are disposable.

Copsa Mica is a small industrial town of 5,000, located approximately 250 km northwest of Romania’s capital, Bucharest, and about an hour’s drive from Sibiu, the European capital of culture. Copsa Mica, on the other hand, could be considered the European capital of pollution.

The only lead smelter in Romania is situated in Copsa Mica. Over the years, leaded leaks from the storage tanks of the factory entered the soil and lead grindings from its industrial operations spread in the air, causing serious environmental damage.

The lead level in the soil is about 90 times the maximum admissible value (MAV), according to the National Institute for Research-Development for Environmental Protection. In the vegetation the level is 22 times the nationally declared MAV, and in the hay fed to the animals, ten times.

Many people suffer from lead poisoning, which they get through exposure to the polluted air and consuming products from the ground, according to several academic studies. The consequences of lead poisoning are severe: brain damage, hearing impairment, kidney and lung disease, impotence, increased risk of death from cancer.

Life expectancy here is nine years below the national average. The infant mortality rate is the highest in Europe.

The academic studies, among them one titled estimated ‘Influence of Environment on Population Health in Copsa Mica’ produced in 2002 by researchers from the Babes-Bolyai University and the Museum of Transylvania in the western region of Romania, agree that it will take another 30 years for people to grow safe crops and raise healthy animals in the area.

“We bring our fruit and vegetables from far away,” says Maria, 56, a seller in the small central market. “People run like crazy from anything coming from the earth in Copsa.”

The source of the pollution is Sometra, the heavy metal smelter. Sometra is the sole factory left in Copsa Mica after Carbosin, which used to produce dyes, was shut down in the early 1990s.

Sometra was opened in 1939 as a zinc smelter owned and operated by the state. During the 1950s, as a part of the massive industrialisation plan of the governing Communist Party, its capacity was increased almost tenfold. Lead smelting was introduced at this time.

In 1998, the plant was privatised and became a member of the Greek holding Mytilineos. The Greeks agreed a detailed environmental control programme under which they would reduce emissions below the maximum admitted level by 2012, or shut down the plant.

“The Greeks haven’t done enough,” says George Iovan, one of the two paramedics on duty at Copsa Mica’s emergency services. “The factory actually works more on the weekends and at night, when there is less monitoring.”

The new owners are implementing some safety measures such as installing filters for reduction of carbon emissions, but this move may not be effective.

Looking at the two factories, Sometra and Carbosin, it is hard to tell which is functional; they both seem deserted.

On Feb. 9, environment minister Suflina Barbu warned she would close down Sometra unless the managers start implementing the programme agreed upon.

“Sometra already received, on Jan. 30, a notification about the suspension of its authorisation to function. I am now publicly warning the company,” said Barbu at the time. “It has not monitored its levels of sulfur dioxide and has not built a proper toxic waste hole. After Mar. 1, the functioning of the plant will be illegal.”

But Mytilineos managed to negotiate postponement of this date. It hired another company to process its waste and assured the authorities it has acquired the monitoring equipment.

“It’s much worse for the workers now with the Greeks than before 1998, when the state managed Copsa,” says Daniel Iorgu, the other paramedic. “Earlier, the state would send the workers to regular detoxification cures. Now, if they speak of lead poisoning half an hour after they leave the factory, Mytilineos does not assume responsibility for treating them.”

The factory currently employs 2,100 people, a thousand directly in the production process. Workers at the smelter are more likely to suffer from lead poisoning now than years ago, the doctors said.

When the plant was privatised, 2,400 people were fired in order to make the enterprise more efficient. “In assembly lines where there used to be eight people working, now you find only two,” Daniel says. “As a consequence, they are more exposed.”

Workers say they have no choice but to go on working at the plant. There is no alternative employment for them in the town. The land is not suited for agriculture. Services are not developed. On Saturday night, one cannot find an open cafeteria or a cinema in town. The unemployment rate in Copsa Mica is above 50 percent.

Most residents say the town would be nothing without Sometra. The factory covers roughly 60 percent of the expenses of the poor locality. It owns the water and electricity networks.

The factory cannot be closed down until the state helps the town become less dependent on it. As a first step in this direction, the government has granted 25 million euro to the town council for establishment of an independent water network.

But there is a lot of work to be done. The town looks like a dump, dominated by one factory, and the skeleton of another. Many areas are covered in trash. High up on a hill are the abandoned flats of workers fired in the 1990s. The damage is obvious, despite efforts by the local authorities to plant trees and repaint buildings.

The damage seems irreparable. It is unlikely any investor would come to such a polluted site. It is uncertain that a state driven by EU imperatives to reduce budget deficits can support the town. Or whether Mytilineos will stay in Copsa Mica after 2012.

(*This story is part of a series of features on sustainable development by IPS and IFEJ – International Federation of Environmental Journalists.)