Day 010 - 11 Jul 94 - Page 19
1 to cover. There are a number of studies that have
documented this. There are some studies that have
2 documented this same pattern in Great Britain.
3 Q. Are there any other examples of volatility of the
production process for polystyrene? Do you know of any
4 problems in a particular factory? I am referring to a
particular plant in Texas, for example?
5 A. Well, without getting into any detail, the polystyrene
foam plant in -- it is an Arko plant----
6
Q. Just tell us what happened.
7 A. It blew up, and 17 employees were killed in that
accident. In that case the government found that there
8 were no violations -- actually the corporation agreed to
pay a penalty, but denied any guilt related to problems
9 associated with their safety procedures and so forth. It
is July 5th, explosion in 1990.
10
MR. JUSTICE BELL: What was the plant manufacturing?
11 A. Polystyrene manufacturing plant.
12 MR. MORRIS: There were no violations that the inspectors
identified?
13 A. Well, the members of the families of the workers
testified that the workers at the plant "Lived with the
14 fear of losing their jobs if they refused to work" under
unsafe conditions. It is also noted that the explosion
15 created a shortage of foam in the marketplace because it
was such a large manufacturing facility.
16
Q. Right. Before we move on, you were going to refer us to
17 one document, were you not? I believe it was the EPA
Dioxin Risk Characterisation. Is that the one? You did
18 allude to a document.
A. Sorry?
19
Q. You did mention a document, but I may have it wrong. The
20 EPA document you were going to refer us to?
A. No, at this point -----
21
Q. We can move on?
22 A. I think we can move on.
23 Q. OK. After the manufacture of, is it polystyrene and then
the blowing agents come into play?
24 A. Yes. In order to create a foam package, it is
necessary to blow gas into the foam, into the polystyrene
25 itself, so that it will become lighter and will be more --
it will be lighter and will have certain properties that
26 are desirable in the foam food package itself.
27 To be specific, early in the campaign in 1987 the
Vermonters Organise for Clean Up targeted McDonald's use
28 of foam based in part on the fact that the foam food
package blowing agent, CFC, or chloro-fluorocarbon, caused
29 damage to the ozone layer. I note that on August 1st of
that year the Vermonters Organise for Clean Up acted and
30 picketed restaurants in Vermont. Five days later, in
concert with a number of manufacturers, McDonald's
