The report of headaches from citizens living near the former OHIS factory reminded us of another sad story in our country. The spillage of a methyl acrylate monomer, a toxic substance, that in a direct contact with the skin can cause severe damage and injury, reaffirms the low awareness of all authorities so far to protect citizens and themselves from poisons. Talking about the incident, we got another reminder that the factory has 30,000 tons of hazardous waste.
Linden (also known as gamma-hexachlorocyclohexane) is an organic compound, a hexachlorocyclohexane isomer, used as an insecticide and in some cases as a treatment for some infections.
According to the World Health Organization, this substance is considered to be moderately toxic and international trade in the substance is prohibited and regulated by the Rotterdam Convention. This substance has been banned for use in more than 50 countries. In 2009, according to the Stockholm Convention on Resistance to Organic Pollutants, the production of this substance was banned.
This hazardous waste has been improperly stored for years at a landfill of OHIS factory. The landfill has been identified as the “hottest ecological point” in Macedonia, listed on world environmental maps, yet left open, completely unprotected, so linden poisons the local population, and the whole Skopje in general.
The OHIS landfill was created since the mid-1970s, when the use of linden was banned. Until then, the production of 13,000 tonnes has been left open without any prior preparation of the substrate. It is left in the ground! A few years later, due to the unbearable smell of the pesticide, the landfills were covered with about 20,000 tonnes of soil. So, now there is a landfill with over 30,000 tons of extremely hazardous waste!
The Government estimated that it will take between 40 and 260 million euros and it is expected that the process will take 3 to 5 years. Until then, 30,000 tonnes of extremely hazardous waste with the carcinogenic pesticide linden continue to pollute the air, water, soil.
These days the media reports are about the only living worker from the factory of OHIS. All of his colleagues are dead.
Writing about the problem, I had a few things in my head – where did all the politicians until now buy fruits and vegetables for their children? How did they choose which air to breathe and which not? The poisons in the ground and in the rivers are also on our table. The chain of nature will kill us.
Lack of awareness of setting a priority list will explode. No country covers live poison. Earth will cover us! All!