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No. 26 June/July 2000 News for All Interested in Featuring |
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No. 26 June/July 2000 News for All Interested in Featuring |
Search this site Campaigns Publications Technical Pulp & Paper About Reach! Contact Us Links |
MillWatch table of contents
MillWatch No. 26 - June 2000
DFO Enforces Law
Downloading Your Daily Paper, Offloading Your Stock
Searching For Compound X: Its A By-Product, And Its Chlorinated
Chlorine Free Progress
Chlorine Free Cheaters
High Tech Pure Air
Nonylphenols CEPA Toxic
LETTER: At Last! The Mystery Explained
About us
How to request brochures, subscribe, donate, or volunteer
(You may SEARCH this page using your browser's FIND command)
MillWatch is sponsored by Reach for Unbleached! Canada to connect people and provide resources for those working on pulp and paper issues. If you have information, experience, or problems you want to share, this forum is meant to spread the word, but it needs your help. Write to us!
Enforcing the law shouldn't be news, but when it comes to fish habitat and the Crofton pulp mill, a sudden move by DFO to require the mill to stop dumping sediment in an intertidal habitat zone has environmentalists cheering. After years of effort by the Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society, DFO has told the mill they are in violation of the Fisheries Act and must provide DFO with plans to come into compliance by July, and actually do so by November.
A 1998 draft study by DFO confirms that the Fletcher Challenge Crofton mill is changing the Bonsall Creek estuary and impacting between 2 and 7 hectares of intertidal habitat by discharging sediment from its water treatment plant into the estuary. Since 1958 the mill has run water from the Cowichan River through a treatment system, adding alum and chlorine to purify the river water for use in the mill and dumped the resulting sediment in the estuary. Fisheries scientists examined the rate of sedimentation and build up of "gel mud" in the path of the discharge, examining variety and abundance of crustaceans.
The report follows a controversial 1997 study which found high sediment rates and chlorine levels "about 500 times over levels considered safe for aquatic life." As a result of that study, Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society vice president Bob Holden launched a private prosecution of Fletcher Challenge for dumping deleterious substances into fish-bearing waters and destroying fish habitat. As has become routine when citizens try to use the Fisheries Act to protect fish habitat, the charges were stayed by the federal Crown and a provincial judge refused to require reasons from the Crown.
Holden and lawyer Waldemar Braul, with the help of West Coast Environmental Law, are still headed for the Supreme Court to get the release of the reasons for the federal stay of charges. Eventually, says Holden, the goal is to get the estuary cleaned up and restored.
* Bob Holden, Cowichan Estuary Preservation Society, (250)748-8944
Pulp and newsprint producers are not yet looking over their shoulders at the advancing technology of electronic paper, but shareholders ought to pay attention. The goal is a flexible plastic that looks and feels like traditional paper, along with an electronic ink which can be changed by plugging into an Internet receiver, and it is getting closer. E Ink, a small company founded by MIT researchers, is already at the stage of using its technology commercially to make indoor signs, which have large, easy to reproduce letters. E Ink believes ebooks will be possible by 2003 or 2004. E Ink's displays are more readable than any electronic display, and require little power. The displays stay on even when the power is off, so an E Ink book would not need to be powered after loading. Xerox also has a team of researchers working on ebook technology.
A more traditional analysis of the pulp and paper market also indicates shifting demands in the immediate future. A recent study of countries responsible for half of global consumption, the US, UK, Germany, France and Japan - "Paper and the Electronic Media" from the Boston Consulting Group, predicts that global consumption of paper will continue to rise, even excluding packing paper. There will be a doubling of growth in print-on-demand office paper use, but a million ton decrease in use of envelopes, due to email. Newsprint use will decline, with North America facing at least a 15% over-capacity by 2003, due to online publications and a decrease in print advertising. Catalogs and reference books will begin to move to electronic versions, causing a predicted 12% decrease in the catalog paper market and 10% decline in book paper demand by 2003.
* USA Today, May 2000, Pulp and Paper Online, September 1999
Searching For Compound X: Its A By-Product, And Its Chlorinated
An article in the December 1999 Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (reference below) has shed some light on the mysterious compound X. As many people will recall, compound X was the term given to an unidentified substance in pulp mill effluent which caused increased activity in the hepatic mixed-function oxygenase enzymes of fish. The MFO-inducing activity had been noted across a range of bleached and unbleached effluents from a variety of pulping methods. This led to speculation that the compound was a natural component of trees and its presence was not linked to pulping or bleaching methods.
In the mid-1990's some sources used compound X to argue that the elimination of chlorinated bleaching chemicals was unnecessary because the remaining environmental effects in effluent probably came from the trees, not the bleaching. While the identification of MFO-inducers in thermomechanical mills tends to support the hypothesis that natural wood constituents are the primary actors in that process and can be removed by effective secondary treatment, this latest article suggests that for bleached kraft mills the case is not so simple.
Researchers from the National Water Research Institute of Environment Canada made tentative identification of strong MFO-inducing fractions in post-secondary treatment effluent, the water that enters the environment. Their conclusion is that the major contributor to MFO-induction in final bleached kraft mill effluent is trichloropterostilbene: a chlorination by-product of a naturally occurring component of some soft woods.
This research raises several concerns. First, chlorine is still creating and increasing the reactivity of compounds that have a potentially negative effect on fish, another important resource. Second, this compound and the other MFO-inducing fractions are present in the final effluent: secondary treatment is not completely removing them.
One unfortunate aspect of the current study is the use of effluent from a mill with 50% chlorine dioxide (ClO2) substitution (the other 50%, presumably, being elemental chlorine). This does not reflect modern mills in Canada, nor mills that could comply with US Cluster Rules. The authors need to test mills with 100% ClO2 bleaching for more relevant information. The authors themselves call for further research to isolate the compound in high concentrations and to confirm the physical structure of the molecule.
Reach for Unbleached! suggests several conclusions and next steps from the research cited.
* Burnison, B. K., M. E. Comba, J. H. Carey, J. Parrott and J. P. Sherry. 1999. Isolation and tentative identification of compound in bleached Kraft mill effluent capable of causing MFO induction in fish. Environmental Toxicology & Chemistry 18(12)2882-2887. For more information contact Kent Burnison at NWRI, kent.burnison@cciw.ca
* Jay Ritchlin, Reach for Unbleached!
In May the Chlorine Free Products Association announced that the US National Catalog Managers Association has agreed to promote the Chlorine Free Products Association TCF/PCF (Totally Chlorine Free/Process Chlorine Free) certification process and request paper suppliers provide a certificate of compliance. National Catalog Managers Association members consume over 7 million tons of paper a year.
The Chlorine Free Products Association TCF/PCF Certification is awarded by third party verification performed by a TAPPI Fellow (Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry) and addresses these issues:
* Archie Beaton, Chlorine Free Products Association, 19 N. Main St, Algonquin, IL 60102; ph: (847)658-6104; fax: (847)658-3152; cfpa1@attglobal.net; www.chlorinefreeproducts.org
Beatons promotion of the Chlorine Free Products Association TCF/PCF Certificate of Compliance would probably find favour with the primary chlorine free pulp producers of Europe, the Swedish tree farmers co-operative, Sodra Cell. In their Autumn 1999 newsletter, Responz, the company reports that the German environmental organization Bund tested paper products which were marketed as chlorine free. Only two of the products tested, including Melittas coffee filters, passed scrutiny. They contained fewer chlorine compounds than the detection limit of 5 micrograms per kilogram (ppm). Germany's limit for pulps sold as Totally Chlorine Free is 30 ppm of chlorine compounds. However, the German environmentalists reported that some diapers and sanitary napkins, as well as food packaging, showed levels up to twice the legal limit for the TCF category, although not as high as regular chlorine bleached pulp which will run over 100 ppm.
Sodra Cell concludes that the results show widespread cheating "which consists of the producers mixing Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) pulp with Elemental Chlorine Free pulp," which is bleached with chlorine dioxide, despite the fact that the rules say all blends in the pulp mixture must qualify as TCF. Diluting the chlorine compounds by mixing chlorine bleached pulp with totally chlorine free pulp still doesn't allow the contaminated pulp to pass laboratory tests, but it works in the marketplace. As Sodra Cell notes of the European marketplace, "Most consumers believe that all paper products are already chlorine-free." With confusing labels like "Elemental Chlorine Free" and now, outright cheating, it is becoming more and more clear that the problem is not lack of market for Totally Chlorine Free pulp; the problem is lack of an honest supply.
* Delores Broten, Reach for Unbleached!
Technology Wranglers is promoting High Tech Pure Air, a new product promising elimination of odours and the chemicals that cause them. Current experience at commercial poultry operations, municipal sewage treatment plants and industrial hog farms suggests that odour control is significant. The manufacturer claims that the product uses "all natural ingredients," is "biodegradable," and has not been tested on animals. The product may be useful at pulp and paper mills. A paper finishing mill in New Zealand which uses the product would not authorise an interview.
Hi-Tech Pure Air (HTPA) is a mixture of weak organic acids, weak organic salts, betaine surfactant, water and plant extract. The mixture forms bonds with the molecules which produce offensive odours. Organic substances containing sulfur, chlorine and fluorine are most susceptible while methane and other straight chain hydrocarbons are not affected. Weak organic salts are formed from this chemical reaction resulting in the odour being removed from the air.
The product is primarily composed of ingredients derived from natural sources. These substances, such as citric acid and coconut oil derivatives are found in many cosmetic products, such as shampoo. The only exception is the preservative, which is present at about 50 grams/200 litres.
HTPA as a whole has been screened and approved for various uses in the US and New Zealand and is biodegradable according to OECD Test 301E. Most testing has been performed by the manufacturer. Testing on individual components is available to potential customers who have signed non-disclosure agreements.
HTPA can be sprayed into the air as a fine mist, or mixed into liquid media. Because the amphoteric surfactants bond with the odour causing molecules, the smells are not simply masked, but essentially precipitated out of the air or water. This also has the potential to inhibit the negative health impacts of the affected compounds.
Technology Wranglers V.P. Clark Southoff sees work place air treatment as the main potential use for HTPA in pulp mills. Effluent treatment lagoons are another possibility.
The creators of HTPA have made great efforts to create an environmentally responsible product that will reduce the negative health and aesthetic effects of odorous pollutants.
Nonetheless, Reach for Unbleached! has several concerns. First, solving problems at the end of the pipe, rather than preventing them is not our preferred solution. Second, there is significant missing toxicological data on the betaine surfactants. According to Environmental Defenses Scorecard website (www.scorecard.org), most betaine compounds have not received more than one or two of eight recommended tests: many have received none. The environmental activity of post-use breakdown products has not been established. In certain pulp mill applications there will be increased concentration of sequestered chlorine or sulphur compounds in solution. Finally, it is not recommended that the product be inhaled, so internal mill use is problematic. The lack of testing or experience available from pulp mills make it difficult to judge the effectiveness and safety of HTPA in that particular industrial setting.
Foul odours are a serious health issue. As demonstrated during the recovery boiler appeal hearings in Powell River, noxious fumes can cause real damage to people. Attempts to create responsible solutions are welcomed, and High Tech Pure Air seems an honest effort.
The product may be as environmentally and odoriferously beneficial as claimed. However, the data is limited about chemicals entering our environment. Reach for Unbleached! advocates pollution prevention first and pollution treatment last.
* For more information contact Technology Wranglers, +011 403 263 6312 or techwranglers@home.com
The Canadian federal government has listed Nonylphenol and its ethoxylates as toxic under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. This means that within two years, Environment Canada must come up with some kind of plan to deal with the substances.
It shouldn't be too hard. Although about 7,000 tonnes of NPEs are used in industrial manufacturing from textiles to pulp and paper, substitutes are available. The government scientific assessment suggested that although the compounds are not now present in the environment at levels high enough to cause danger, they are ubiquitous in consumer products, from household soaps to shampoos, and in effluents, sediments and sludges from municipal and industrial treatment plants. They may have an immediate or long term harmful effect on the environment or its biological diversity.
The assessment seemed to apply some level of precautionary action to the endocrine disrupting compounds, which do not biodegrade well in treatment facilities. However, European countries began phasing out NPEs in the 1970s! In the last couple of years, several pulp companies, have begun to phase out NPEs and replace them with alcohol-based compounds, notably Nexfor, Atlantic Packaging and Bowater Canada.
The Department of Fisheries and Oceans in Atlantic Canada has recently released some spectacular research which shows that a variant of NP, contained in one of the pesticides sprayed on New Brunswick forests against spruce budworm in the late 1980s, entered the forest streams. By mapping, DFO scientists realized that native Atlantic salmon runs had failed where this pesticide had been sprayed. It was not until late last year that tests showed that juvenile salmon, smolt, exposed to NP in the estuary, died three or four months after the exposure. Long term lab tests are rarely run on fish and chemicals, and the native salmon would have died after they left the estuary, out in the ocean where their disappearance was a mystery.
The NP Priority Substances List Assessment Report notes that it would not necessarily be a good thing if companies were to substitute NPE for closely related chemicals, octylphenol ethoxylates, which research shows may be even more toxic to fish.
* Sources from Environment Canada, Fisheries and Oceans and World Wildlife Fund.
Dear MillWatch:
Water is supposed to be H20, except downstream from pulp mills where H20 means two parts horrible and one part odour. Probably someone technical can give you more detailed chemistry on the reasons for all this, but basically the above I believe is the reason for fish kills in pulp/paper polluted streams.
Keep up the good work with Reach for Unbleached!
* Joy Towles, President, HOPE (Help Our Polluted Environment), Taylor County, Florida