TL: Pulp and Paper SO: Greenpeace (GP) DT: 4 April 1992 Keywords: pulp paper chlorine organochlorine toxins industry health / PULP AND PAPER The pulp and paper industry is the world's second largest consumer of chlorine and the greatest source of toxic organochlo- rine discharges directly into waterways. Although dozens of mills across the world are now producing high-quality, bright paper using totally chlorine-free technology, most of the world's producers have yet to switch. With safe and effective alterna- tives now available for this highly polluting industry, the phase-out of chlorine from pulp and paper mills should begin immediately. ---------------------------------------------------------------- At first glance, a sheet of paper might seem harmless, especially compared to the many chemical pesticides, plastics and other products on the market today. But a closer look at paper production reveals toxic chlorine bleaching and reckless logging practices that are devastating our forests, our rivers and lakes, and our health. Of particular concern are the huge quantities of toxic organochlorines -- by-products from the use of chlorine bleaches -- that the world's paper industry releases into the air, the water, and paper products themselves. These chemicals, including dioxin and thousands of other substances, are building up in the global environment, the food chain, and the bodies of the human population. Organochlorines can cause severe effects on the health of people and wildlife and are implicated in local and global outbreaks of cancer, impaired reproduction and development, immune suppression, and other diseases. TOXIC ORGANOCHLORINE DISCHARGES The paper industry is the world's second largest chlorine consumer, using about 3 million tonnes each year to bleach wood pulp bright white. (1) Chlorine is used in a number of different forms: as elemental chlorine gas (Cl2), chlorine dioxide (ClO2) or sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl). All result in the discharge of toxic organochlorine by-products. Because chlorine is extremely reactive, it combines quickly with the organic matter in the pulp to produce thousands of new chemicals called organochlorines. An average-sized conventional pulp mill discharges around 35 tonnes of organochlorines every day, while those that use chlorine dioxide discharge 10 to 20 tonnes per day. The paper industry is the largest source of organochlorine releases directly into the world's waterways, discharging 2 million tonnes of organochlorines each year. (2) Pulp mills in Sweden and Canada appear to be responsible for as much as 90 percent of all organochlorines discharged directly into the Baltic Sea and the Great Lakes. (3,4) Over 300 organochlorines have been identified in the discharges of bleached pulp mills, including dioxins, furans, chlorinated phenols, acids, benzenes, and many others. (5) These identified compounds account for less than 10 percent of all the organochlorines in the effluent; the majority remain "mystery" chemicals that have not been specifically identified or assessed. Many of these are large, complex organochlorines that are transformed in the environment into more persistent and toxic compounds. (5) Many organochlorines resist natural breakdown processes, so they build up over time in the environment. Organochlorines from pulp mills have been found in the water, sediment, and food chain as far as 1400 kilometers (868 miles) from their source. (4) Further, many organochlorines concentrate in the tissues of living things and are magnified as they move up the foodchain. Predator fish and other species near pulp mills have been found to accumulate dioxins and other organochlorines at concentrations thousands or even millions of times greater than the levels found in the water itself. (4) Pulp mills also release organochlorines into the air, particularly chloroform, a cancer-causing substance. Worldwide emissions of chloroform from the paper industry are estimated at 30,000 tonnes per year. (6) Organochlorines are also found in the sludge produced at pulp mills. Accounting for as much as 4 percent of the total weight of the material, contaminated sludge is spread on the land, buried in landfills, or incinerated, releasing chlorinated by-products into the air, including PCBs and dioxins. (7) In forests where pulp mill sludge has been disposed, dioxins have accumulated in the tissues of field animals and caused biochemical effects in birds. (8) Finally, organochlorines are found in paper products themselves. Environment Canada estimates that 2 percent of the organochlorines formed in the bleaching process remain in the pulp. (5) Based on this figure, about 80,000 tonnes of these chemicals end up in paper products each year. Dioxins and furans have been identified in cigarette paper, tampons, diapers, tissues, coffee filters and bleached milk cartons. (9) Bleached containers and filters can leach dioxins into milk, coffee, and other foods with which they come in contact. (10) HARMING HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT There is extensive evidence that effluent from chlorine- bleaching pulp mills harms fish and aquatic ecosystems. Pulp mill discharges -- and organochlorines in particular -- have been linked to physical deformities in fish, reduced gonad growth, hormonal changes and reproductive impairment, liver disorders, disruption of cell function, changes in blood composition, damage to skin and gills, changes in shoaling behaviour and changes in the structure of fish populations. Organochlorine discharges from pulp mills have also damaged fish habitats, injured aquatic plant colonies, and caused harm to benthic and bivalve organisms. (11) Effects on fish have been recorded as far as 40 kilometers (25 miles) away from the pulp mill's discharge point. (11) An extensive study by the Swedish EPA was unable to determine any safe exposure level to organochlorine discharges from pulp mills, concluding that "regional and possibly large- scale" damage to fish and the aquatic foodchain may be occurring throughout the Baltic ecosystem. (11) Organochlorine contamination of the Great Lakes food chain has also been linked to region-wide epidemics of reproductive and developmental impairment in 14 species of fish and wildlife in that ecosystem. (12) Organochlorines found in pulp mill effluent can harm human health, as well, causing cancer, reproductive and developmental impairment, birth defects, and other health problems. (5) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, has estimated that people eating contaminated fish caught downstream from chlorine-bleaching pulp mills bear cancer risks as high as 1 in 50. (13) Several studies have found elevated risks of cancer among workers in the pulp and paper industry. (14) Pulp and paper mills are major sources of dioxins and related compounds -- the most toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative compounds known to science. According to recent U.S. Environmental Protection Agency research, tiny doses of dioxin can disrupt the body's hormones and cause infertility, impaired development, immune suppression, and cancer. According to EPA scientists, the levels of dioxin currently found in the tissues of the general human population are already high enough to cause these effects. (15) Fish and marine mammals, too, are very susceptible to dioxin's effects on reproduction and development. (16) Each year, the world's paper industry discharges from 650 to 3200 grams of "dioxin-equivalents" into water, sludge and paper products, based on U.S. EPA figures. (17) This quantity is equal to the amount of dioxin that can cause 57,000 to 285,000 cases of cancer each year, according to EPA toxicity estimates. (18) Already, dioxin contamination has forced the closure of fishing grounds around eleven of the fourteen pulp plants on the British Columbian coast, where extremely high dioxin concentrations were found in crabs, mussels and the liver tissue of fish. In 1994, the Maine Department of Health recommended that children and pregnant women not eat lobster livers due to dioxin contamination caused primarily by the state's 7 chlorine- bleaching pulp mills. TOWARDS A CLEAN PULP AND PAPER INDUSTRY Chlorine-free technologies for pulp and paper are already in commercial use at dozens of mills across the world. The market for chlorine free pulp is growing, and the barriers - both technological and economic - are diminishing daily. The quality of chlorine-free pulp and paper is already on par with chlorine- bleached products and is continuing to improve. (see box) Adopting totally chlorine-free bleaching is a first step in the transition to an environmentally sound paper industry. Over- consumption of paper and reliance on forest clear-cutting are also essential issues. The paper industry can be transformed into a model of Clean Production, if it adopts sustainable for- estry, non-toxic processes, in-plant recycling of effluent and chemicals, maximum recycling of paper products, and a substantial decrease in consumption, particularly in the industrialized nations. --------------------------- [CHART] ------------------------- ACTION TOWARDS A CLEAN PAPER INDUSTRY Some paper companies 55 mills now producing totally chlorine- free, high-quality bleached pulp. Province of Ontario Pulp mills must eliminate organochlorine discharges by 2002. British Columbia Pulp mills must eliminate organochlorine discharges by 2002. Sweden National goal to end toxic discharges from pulp mills by 2000. International Joint Calls on U.S. and Canada to phase-out all Commission on the uses of chlorine as an industrial feedstock. Great Lakes Paris Commission 13 nations and the EU agree to eliminate on the North discharges of persistent, bioaccumulative Atlantic toxic substances, particularly organochlorines. Barcelona Convention 21 nations agree to eliminate discharges on the Mediterranean of persistent, bioaccumulative toxic substances, particularly organochlorines. American Public Calls for "measurable and progressive Health Association reductions toward the elimination of the use of chlorine-based bleaches in the pulp and paper industry." ---------------------------------------------------------------- WHAT YOU CAN DO - Demand that governments develop regulations and incentives to eliminate the use of chlorine and chlorine-based bleaches in the pulp and paper industry within 5 years. - Pressure large paper users -- publishers, magazines, printing and copy companies, and governments -- to use chlorine- free paper. - As a consumer, use less, recycle more and buy chlorine- free, or 100% recycled (using post-consumer waste) paper products that have not been de-inked or re-bleached. ---------------- BOX: TOTALLY CHLORINE-FREE PAPER -------------- The first step in eliminating chlorine is to consider which paper products need to be bleached bright white. Unbleached, off-white paper is suitable for most uses, from office paper to toilet tissue. When white paper is necessary, pulp can be bleached using totally chlorine-free (TCF) methods. In the 1970s, many of the world's major paper companies began developing chlorine-free bleaching processes that use oxygen-based bleaches, including ozone, hydrogen peroxide, and oxygen gas. TCF bleaching is now effective, feasible, and economical. Today, there are at least 55 pulp mills producing totally chlorine-free pulp. The majority are in Scandinavia, with a few in Spain and Portugal, seven in Canada and four in the U.S. (20) TCF pulp has the strength, whiteness and other qualities necessary for the most demanding paper uses. [photo of Der Spiegel and Stern, Profil, IKEA catalogue, something from Kinko's, and this factsheet. Caption: Concerned companies are now using totally chlorine-free paper for some of the world's largest and most demanding print jobs.] Chlorine-free bleaching is in the long-term economic interest of the paper industry. Because the alternatives are available and efficient, eliminating chlorine means changing processes, not closing mills or eliminating jobs. Conversion requires a capital investment, but a mill can offset that cost in just a few years through reduced expenses for chemicals, energy, wastewater treatment, sludge disposal, liability and remediation. (21) Eliminating chlorine and its highly corrosive by-products also allows a pulp mill to operate as a "closed-loop system" and reap further savings in water and chemical use. If all pulp mills followed this path there would be an annual saving of 24 billion gallons of water (19), plus reductions of 90 percent or more in the use of other chemicals, such as caustic soda. With a closed-loop system, costs can be reduced further by about 35 US dollars per ton of pulp, or up to $3.5 billion per year for the entire industry. (22) ----------------------------------------------------------------- BOX: CHLORINE DIOXIDE: GOING ONLY HALFWAY Many pulp makers have tried to avoid investing in chlorine-free technology by switching from chlorine gas to chlorine dioxide bleach. But chlorine dioxide still results in the production and release of large quantities of organochlo- rines, though less than chlorine gas. With an effective alterna- tive available that can solve the problem completely, there is no good reason to go only halfway. A complete switch from chlorine to chlorine dioxide can reduce organochlorines by up to 80 percent. Even if all the world's pulp mills were converted to chlorine dioxide and equipped with state-of-the-art pollution control equipment, however, the paper industry would still discharge at least 140,000 tonnes per year of organochlorines into waterways, plus additional releases to air, land, and products, based on the industry's own estimates. (23) These effluents would contain about 2,000 tonnes per year of very persistent and bioaccumula- tive compounds such as dioxins, furans and chlorophenols. (24) Chlorine-dioxide effluents also contain chloroform, chlori- nated acids, sulfones, and other toxic compounds that can be taken up into the tissues of fish. (25) Further, chlorine diox- ide bleaching produces large amounts of chlorate, a powerful herbicide that kills both plants and fish. (4,5) Finally, the vast majority of the organochlorines found in these effluents have not been specifically identified or assessed. (25) The environmental and economic benefits of a closed-loop system are not available to mills that use chlorine dioxide, because of the presence of corrosive chlorination by-products in the effluent. Only at great expense can effluent from such mills be recycled; even then, organochlorine contaminants must be removed and incinerated, resulting in their dispersal into the air. (26) An extensive research program by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency concluded that effluent from pulp mills using chlorine dioxide continue to damage aquatic ecosystems, though with less severity than mills that use chlorine gas. The more chlorine used, the more severe the effects, these studies found. Chlorine dioxide does less damage to aquatic ecosystems than pure chlorine, but chlorine-free mills cause the least injury of all. (11) ---------------------------------------------------------------- REFERENCES 1. Martin, P., and J. Ehrenfeld (1993). The use of chlorine in the pulp and paper industry. Dimensions of Managing Chlorine in the Environment: Report of the MIT/Norwegian Chlorine Policy Study. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 2. Assuming 1.8 kg of organically-bound halogens (AOX) per ton of pulp, cf. U.S. EPA, Effluent Limitations Guidelines, Pretreatment Standards and New Source Performance Standards: Pulp, Paper and Paperboard Category, 1993; world production of 100 million tonnes of bleached pulp per year; and 10 kg of organohalogens for each kilogram of halide measured as AOX. See Bonsor 1989 (5). 3. Enell, M. (1992) AOX loadings on sea areas surrounding Sweden - quantities and origins of loadings. Environmental fate and effects of bleached pulp mill effluents. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, Report 4031, pp. 57-67. 4. Environment Canada (1991). Canadian Environmental Protection Act: Priority Substances List Assessment Report No. 2: Effluents from Pulp Mills Using Bleaching. Ottawa: Government of Canada. 5. Bonsor, N., et al. (1989) Kraft Mill Effluents in Ontario: Report of the MISA Study. Windsor: Environment Ontario. See also, Suntio, L., Shiu. W., and Mackay, D. (1988). A review of the nature and properties of chemicals present in pulp mill effluent. Chemosphere 17 (7): 1249-1290. 6. Assuming 100 million tonnes per year of worldwide bleached pulp production and chloroform formation at the rate 0.3 kg/ton of pulp. See Kroesa, R. (1991) The Greenpeace Guide to Paper. Greenpeace International, 1991. 7. Mantykoski, K., et al. (1989). Combustion products of biosludge from pulp mill. Chemosphere 19:413-416. 8. ERT, A Resource Engineering Company (1987). Land Treatment Effects on Wildlife Populations in Red Pine Plantations. Nekoosa Papers, Inc.. 9. Rappe, C. (1990). Environmentally stable chlorinated contaminants from the pulp and paper industry. in Vaino, H., et al. Complex Mixtures and Cancer Risk. International Agency for Research on Cancer, p. 341-353. 10. Furst, P., et al. (1991). Body burden with PCDD and PCDF from food. Biological Basis for Risk Assessment of Dioxins and Related Compounds. Banbury Report 35:133-142. 11. Sodergren, A., et. al. (1993). Bleached Pulp Mill Efflu- ents: Composition Fate, and Effects in the Baltic Sea. Report of the Environment/Cellulose II Project. Swedish Environmental Protection Agency #4047. See also, Sodergren, A, et al. (1989). Biological Effects of Bleached Pulp Effluent. Swedish Environmen- tal Protection Agency, #3558. See also Environment Canada (4). 12. International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes (1991). 1991 Science Advisory Board Report. Windsor, Ontario. 13. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (1990). Risk Assessment for 2,3,7,8-TCDD and 2,3,7,8-TCDF contaminated receiving waters from U.S. Chlorine-Bleaching Pulp and Paper Mills. Washington, D.C.: U.S. EPA Office of Water Regulations and Standards. 14. Hogstedt, C. (1990). Cancer epidemiology in the paper and pulp industry. In Vaino, M. et. al. Complex Mixtures and Cancer Risk. Lyon: International Agency for Research on Cancer, 382- 398. 15. Birnbaum, L, et al.(1993) Update: The US EPA's Scientific Reassessment of the Risks of Exposure to Dioxin. Dioxin '93, Organohalogen Compounds 14:1-4. 16. Cook, P, et al. (1991). Bioaccumulation and toxicity of TCDD and related compounds in aquatic ecosystems. Biological Basis for Risk Assessment of Dioxins and Related Compounds. Banbury Report 35:143-167. See also, Subramian, N., et al. (1987). Reduction in the testosterone levels by PCBs and DDE in Dall's Porpoises of Northwestern North Pacific. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 18:643-646. See also Birnbaum (15). 17. Based on U.S. EPA estimates of dioxin releases from the U.S. paper industry of 235-1180, and assuming U.S. bleached pulp production is 36 percent of world total. Cleverly, D. (1993) Dioxin Reassessment Update. For presentation at the EPA Regional Waste Combustion Permit Writers Workgroup Meeting. Washington D.C.: U.S. EPA Office of Health and Environmental Assessment. See also, Annual Review, World Trends and Trade, Pulp and Paper International, July 1993. 18. Based on U.S. EPA's current cancer potency estimate for 2,3,7,8-TCDD of 0.156 (ng/kg/day)-1, assuming a 70 kg person with a 70 year lifetime. cf. U.S. EPA (1985). Health Assessment Document for Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins. Office of Health and Environmental Assessment. EPA/600/8-84/014f. Of course, not all dioxin released will immediately result in human exposure; this figure is not a risk characterization but puts quantitative discharges in toxicological perspective. 19. Shackford L. (1992) Commercial implementation of ozone bleaching technology. Presented at Non-Chlorine Bleaching: Emerging Technologies Today And In The Future. Hilton Head, SC. March 2-5 1992. 20. Albert, R. "TCF Mills." Parsons Maine, distributed at Non- Chlorine Bleaching Conference, Amelia Island, FL, March 1994. See also Pearson, J. TCF: there's no holding back the tide. Pulp and Paper International. April 1992, p. 72. 21. Singh, R. (1993). in K. Patrick. Non-chlorine bleaching opens doors to new markets; effluent closure options. Pulp and Paper, March 1993. 22. Albert, R. (1993). Technical and economic feasibility of the effluent-free bleached kraft pulp mill. Proceedings of the non- chlorine bleaching conference, March 14-18, 1993. Hilton Head, SC. See also, The closed cycle: the route to closed mills. Psper 217:36-40, 3 March 1992. 23. Assuming a minimum production of 0.7 kg AOX per ton of pulp, 2 kg of organochlorines for each kg AOX, and world bleached pulp production of about 100 million tonnes per year. Solomon, K., et al. (1993) A Review and Assessment of the Ecological Risks Associated with the Use of Chlorine Dioxide for the Bleaching of Pulp. Alliance for Environmental Technology, October 1993. 24. Assuming a .0114 ratio of extractable organically-bound chlorine (EOCl) to total organically-bound halide (AOX) in effluents from mills using 100% chlorine dioxide. See Solomon (23). 25. Solomon (1993), note 23. 26. M. Ward (1994). Eka Nobel develops closed-loop bleaching method. Chemical Week, 16 March 1994, p. 16.