Warning: Toxic Waste Trucks Threaten Traffic in Israel

["Greenbase" <greenbas@gb.greenpeace.org>]

WARNING: TOXIC WASTE TRUCKS THREATEN TRAFFIC IN ISRAEL
Greenpeace warns Israeli road drivers from toxic waste trucks
heading to Ramat Hovav

Tel Aviv, 13 April 1997 - Greenpeace Mediterranean protested
today with a huge banner hanging from the "Moses Bridge" above
the Ayalon highway. It read: "With you on the road - trucks
carrying toxic waste on their way to pollute the Negev."

The banner is the first in a series to be posted at main
junctions in protest against the management of toxic waste in
Israel. The protest at major highways is another step in the
ongoing Greenpeace campaign on toxic waste in Israel.

According to the law, all toxic waste produced in Israel must be
transferred to the toxic waste dumpsite at Ramat Hovav. The
transport of the waste endangers drivers and citizens living
along the main routes. The toxic waste reaching Ramat Hovav adds
to the heavy pollution in the area.

The Ministry of the Environment recently said that the
incinerator being built on the site will first burn all of the
existing waste at Ramat Hovav. 

"Finally the authorities are admitting the urgency of a `clean
up' in Ramat Hovav," said in Tel Aviv Ofer Ben-Dov, Greenpeace
Mediterranean campaigner in Israel. "However, incineration is
far from being a solution to the toxic waste problem. It merely
converts toxics from one form to another and is a counter
incentive to the need to solve the toxic waste problem at its
source".

Greenpeace demands that the government of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu cancels all waste incineration plans. It must
immediately institute an emergency clean up plan of the Ramat
Hovav site, and implement a national clean production policy
including a reduction of toxic waste and non-polluting treatment
in the factories.

For more information please contact in Tel Aviv: Greenpeace
Mediterranean, Israel Campaign, Ofer Ben-Dov and  Tirtsa Kisch,
++ 972-3-5102079, ++972-52433694. emails:
gpmedisr@diala.greenpeace.org , gpmedite@diala.greenpeace.org

Notes:

1. A delegation of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
recently visited the Ramat Hovav site.  Their visit resulted in
a letter  to the General Director of the Israeli Ministry of the
Environment warning of a possible disaster on site.

2. Last February, Greenpeace wrote a letter to the Prime
Minister demanding that he implements an immediate plan to clean
up Ramat Hovav and apply a national clean production policy. 
Following the letter a special meeting of the Parliamentary
Committee of Internal Affairs was called to discuss the problem.
The same day, a barrel containing an organo-phosphorous
pesticide exploded at the toxic waste dump site. Luckily no one
was injured.

3. The toxic waste incinerator that is currently  under
construction at the Ramat Hovav site will start working in four
months.