U.S. Company Has Poisoned Its Workers, and Lake Managua

El Caso Pennwalt." This phrase, running across newspapers in Nicaragua over the last year, has become a catchword for multinational abuse. The case involves Electroquimica Pennwalt, a chemicals factory 40 percent owned by the Philadelphia-based multinational corporation, Pennwalt. Last May, a Sandinista government examination revealed that Pennwalt was responsible for massive mercury contamination in Lake Managua. On further investigation, government inspectors discovered that workers at the Pennwalt factory were suffering from mercury poisoning.

The Institute of Natural Resources, a new department created by the Sandinista government, opened up "El Caso Pennwalt" when it began to examine ways of curtailing the ever increasing pollution of Lake Managua by surrounding industrial plants - pollution which was gradually killing the fish in the lake. Identifying one of the major contaminants to be mercury, the Institute rapidly traced this back to its source - Electroquimica Pennwalt. Further investigations showed that the lakeside plant had pumped between two and four tons of mercury into the lake every year for the last 12 years, and at increasing rates. Despite claims by Pennwalt that it dumped only 10 tons of mercury into the lake, the Institute estimates that there are now 40 tons of mercury lying at the bottom of Lake Managua. Dr. Amin Hassan of the Ministry of Health warned last May that "the water, and indeed the fish, must already be contaminated, and, as we all know, the major portion of the fish that this city consumes comes from Lake Managua."

Dr. Mario Epelman, head of the Department of Occupational Safety and Health at the Ministry of Labor, recently concluded from laboratory studies that 30 percent of the fish examined from Lake Managua showed a level of mercury contamination above the World Health Organization's maximum acceptable limit.

Once the Government of National Reconstruction determined that Pennwalt was responsible for the mercury deposits in Lake Managua, it ordered an extensive investigation into conditions in the plant and the effects of the work environment on Pennwalt's employees. When Dr. Epelman inspected the plant in March 1980, he found pools of mercury lying on the floor and covering machinery. Toxic mercury in the air was 12 times the level recommended as safe by the U.S. National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

What is more, Dr. Epelman found the workers to be totally in the dark about possible hazards of mercury exposure. Worker representatives claimed that they had never been informed of the dangers of mercury and that pamphlets warning of the toxicity of mercury were stored in management offices-never having been distributed. Pennwalt's vice-president of chemicals in Philadelphia, Robert Ogden, claimed in March, however, that all workers were informed of the dangers, and that the leaflets found during government inspection were surplus. In any case, Dr. Epelman found that workers were not careful about washing before eating and about cleaning their clothes. In some instances, workers were taking their clothes home to be washed, and even brought tiny balls of mercury home for their children, Dr. Epelman reported.

After Dr. Epelman's inspection, the Nicaraguan government screened all the workers at Pennwalt for symptoms of mercury poisoning. The examination found that 56 of the 152, workers (37 percent) displayed evidence of mercury contamination, such as nervousness, irritability, and trembling. They all showed signs of at least one or more non-specific symptoms such as memory loss, lack of concentration, chills, cramps, depression and insomnia. Fifty-four of these 56 workers were then given an extensive series of tests covering a wide range of symptoms. All were found to have damaged nervous systems as a result of mercury poisoning, and four workers were found with advanced signs of poisoning. The government recommended that those four stop work permanently, and that the other 52 workers stop work for three to six months while their condition was monitored.

One worker, who had worked in the chlorine processing section of Pennwalt for 10 years, suffered psychological damage and has been hospitalized twice for treatment. Dr. Amin Hassan, in his report to the Department of Labor, wrote that this man had "severe behavioral disturbances which were the result of contact with mercury."

Pennwalt's response was to send their own medical expert to Nicaragua to write a new report for the company. By now the case was becoming well publicized in the Managua press, and Pennwalt was being severely criticized for the treatment of its workers.

The man the company chose for the job was Dr. Jesse Burdick, a private consultant who previously had been employed as medical director of Ethyl Corporation. (He was also an associate of Dr. Mitchell Zavon, with whom he consulted on the Pennwalt case. Dr. Zavon is a medical director of Hooker Chemical, the U.S. corporation which was responsible for the Love Canal disaster.) Dr. Burdick was disparaging about the report of the Nicaraguan doctors. "I believe the 56 (employees identified as suffering from mercury exposure) were selected principally because of symptoms with only a few showing what t would consider objective physical findings," he wrote in his report. "These 'findings' were, I believe, nervousness, unusual behavior and slight tremor (in only a few cases)."

Despite the fact that Dr. Burdick played down the evidence of mercury poisoning throughout his report, he did admit that six workers had "symptoms and objective findings of intoxication with mercury" and that 37 had symptoms which he described as "possibly caused by mercury." Dr. Burdick also recommended a series of fairly comprehensive measures to eradicate the possibility of mercury exposure.

Following Dr. Burdick's report, the Nicaraguan government brought in a third medical expert: Dr. Mollie Coye from the U.S. Department of Health's National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. She reviewed the diagnosis of mercury poisoning and confirmed the findings of the Nicaraguan doctors. Dr. Coye, in explaining the discrepancy between Dr. Burdick's reports and those of the Nicaraguan doctors, said that Dr. Burdick "only carried out brief examinations and had concentration on looking for the third and most advanced stage of mercury poisoning."

{Soon after Dr. Coye's review, Pennwalt lodged a complaint about her to the U.S. State Department, and re= quested a report on Dr. Coye and her activities in Nicaragua. Pennwalt also falsely alleged to church shareholders of Pennwalt that Dr. Coye was not a medical doctor, only a psychologist.)

The Nicaraguan government recommended that Pennwalt take several measures to curtail mercury poisoning: improve plant maintenance, build separate dining, shower and changing facilities, and reduce levels of mercury in the air. The government also advised that the workers undergo regular monitoring and examination.

Pennwalt has now undertaken many of the measures to clean up the plant. However, the company claims it cannot afford new chlorine-production technology which is not based on mercury. When Pennwalt drew up plans in 1976. to double the plant capacity and install new equipment, it was earning $3.5 million a year from the plant. But in 198Q, Pennwalt sustained a $2.3 million loss. This came amid allegations in the Nicaraguan press that Pennwalt had withdrawn capital from Managua in 1978 when the Sandinista offensive began to gain strength. These allegations appear to have some basis, for when the revolution triumphed, the company owed S4 million in unpaid bills and had not repaired its plant equipment for years. '

New equipment will be on its way, however. The Central American Bank for Economic Intervention has agreed to loan Electroquimica Pennwalt $1 million to install a mercury removal system and S 1.5 million for new equipment and spare parts to replace run down equipment. Pennwalt USA has agreed to put up $325,000 towards these improvements, and the Nicaraguan government, as part owner, has put up a matching sum. Installation of the new equipment is six to 12 months away.

Some of the workers allegedly suffering from mercury poisoning have now been compensated by Pennwalt. Last December, the Sandinista Trade Union Federation and the Pennwalt union brought a suit for criminal damages against Electroquimica Pennwalt. They claimed that four men were totally disabled as a result of mercury contamination. Pennwalt decided to settle out of court rather than face expensive court proceedings, and the workers have all been awarded lifetime pensions.

While the Pennwalt plant seems to be moving in a healthier direction thanks to the efforts of the Nicaraguan government, and while some of the workers have been paid for their Alleged exposure to mercury, one problem remains: the contamination of Lake Managua. Unless steps are taken to clean it up, the polluted lake may present a serious health danger to the. population of Managua. Currently, the Nicaraguan government is examining ways of implementing decontamination measures, but no action has yet been taken.

Given the depleted financial resources available to the Nicaraguan government, particularly after the recent U.S. aid cutoff, the Sandinistas for years to come may not be able to allocate the funds necessary to cleanse Lake Managua of Pennwalt's poisons.

Annie Street works for the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility in New York.

How Pennwalt and Mercury Operate Pennwalt was invited into Nicaragua in 1968 by General Anastasio Somoza's government to supply chemical raw materials for other factories in the. country, especially to Hercules Inc., a U.S. company which manufactures the pesticide toxaphene. Toxaphene is highly toxic; it can cause damage to the central nervous system, kidneys and liver, and it is carcinogenic in laboratory mice. Toxaphene is widely used in Latin America to spray export crops. At present, Hercules in Nicaragua buys about 85-90 percent of the chlorine that Electroquimica Pennwalt produces. Pennwalt also sells caustic soda, a chlorine by-product, to other Nicaraguan factories. The Pennwalt plant produces essential raw materials for factories employing a total of 5,000 workers. When the Pennwalt plant was set up, the company went into partnership with the Somoza regime, which held 60 percent while Pennwalt had 40 percent. In 1977, the Somoza government sold its share to private investors-cotton farmers interested in the plant because they used toxaphene to spray their cotton fields. (The Bank of Nicaragua was also among the private investors, which, when the Sandinistas nationalized the banks in 1979, brought the government back in as a shareholder.) The controversy surrounding Pennwalt focuses on the company's use of mercury to produce chlorine and caustic soda. The toxic effects of mercury have been known for over 2000 years. It was used to turn fur into felt in the 1800s and sustained exposure to the fumes often resulted in serious damage to the nervous systems of workers exposed, giving rise to the expression, "mad as a hatter." In 1960, 52 people died in Minamata, Japan, as a result of eating fish contaminated by mercury. The Japanese mercury poisoning outbreak also resulted in birth defects and severe incapacitation of some 181 Minamata residents. The condition has since become known as "Minamata Disease." Mercury is capable-of forming both organic and inorganic compounds. Although both are toxic, inorganic mercury is the less lethal of the two. However, inorganic mercury can convert in water into the organic compound through a process known as, bio-methylation, and the organic form can then enter the food chain. It was just this process which caused the deaths at Minamata. (In March, representatives of Pennwalt's management told members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility, a National Council of Churches organization, that they were unaware that inorganic mercury could change in water into the organic, lethal form.) Mercury has its most serious effect on the nervous system and the brain, but it can also cause tiredness, loss of memory, tremors, diarrhea and dizziness. It can be absorbed into the body by inhalation, ingestion or absorption. Up until the Sandinista revolution in 1979, no assessment of Pennwalt's operations were made, and the mercury poisoning that may have been flowing from the plant went unchecked. Soon after the new government - came to power, however, departments were set up to safeguard the environment and workers' health. Among these were the Nicaraguan Institute of Natural Resources and the Environment, a department of Occupational Safety and Health within the Ministry of Labor, and a National Health Service.