6/9 RW Activists Board Ship to Delay Chlorine Paper Export

[the.greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org]

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Original-TO:      World Press (Green2:Green2:Gnl:INET)
Original-TO:   The.Greenbase@green2.greenpeace.org
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 RAINBOW WARRIOR ACTIVISTS BOARD TASMAN SHIP TO DELAY CHLORINE-
BLEACHED PAPER EXPORTS 
 
Press Release-TAURANGA 9 June 1996 (GP) Greenpeace activists
from the Rainbow Warrior boarded the Tasman Pulp and Paper
Company's Tasman Venture ship late tonight in the Port of
Tauranga, protesting against its cargo of chlorine-bleached
paper destined for the Australian market.
 
Activists occupied the ship's crane and attached themselves to
its mooring and anchor lines, delaying the ship's departure.
Mock Tasman Pulp and Paper (TPP) banners reading "Take the
Poison out of Paper" were hung from the ship. Activists
in inflatables painted the same slogan on the ship's bow.
 
Greenpeace Campaign Director Stephanie Mills said Greenpeace was
demanding an end to the use of dangerous chlorinated chemicals
in the bleaching process at the Tasman Pulp and Paper Mill.
Chlorine-bleached pulp and paper is railed to the
Port of Tauranga for export to Australia and Asia.
 
"Tasman is profiting from this export trade while the Bay of
Plenty bears the environmental cost," she said. "The irony is
that Fletcher Challenge, which owns Tasman, is eliminating
chlorine-bleached pulp from its own mills in Australia, but
it still prepared to produce it at home," she said.  
 
Tasman Pulp and Paper discharges around 150 million litres of
effluent, containing five to ten tonnes of organochlorines, into
the Tarawera River (known locally as the 'Black Drain') every
day.  Organochlorines and dioxin are implicated in a wide range
of health problems including infertility, hormone disruption,
cancer and impaired development. In the North Sea, Mediterranean
and parts of Canada organochlorine discharges to the marine
environment are being phased out by the year 2005.
 
Stephanie Mills said Tasman had refused to commit to phasing out
chlorinated discharges in New Zealand at a meeting with
Greenpeace last week.  Tasman Chief Executive Ida Goodreau and
other senior executives met with Greenpeace campaigners on
Thursday to discuss Greenpeace's call for the mill to go totally
chlorine free, a technology which has already been adopted by
many mills worldwide.
 
The action at the Port of Tauranga is part of the month-long
"Poisons in Paradise" tour of New Zealand by the Greenpeace
flagship Rainbow Warrior, which aims to end the discharge of
hazardous pollution into New Zealand's seas and rivers.
 
ENDS
Further information: Stephanie Mills (025) 790 817 or Glyn
Walters (025) 931 3
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