The Environment Ministry has asked a prosecutor to file charges against a Turkish pharmaceutical company for allegedly burying hundreds of barrels of toxic waste near Istanbul, the environment minister said Thursday.
ISTANBUL, Turkey — The Environment Ministry has asked a prosecutor to file charges against a Turkish pharmaceutical company for allegedly burying hundreds of barrels of toxic waste near Istanbul, the environment minister said Thursday.
Officials on March 20 discovered several barrels buried illegally in a field in Tuzla, on the outskirts of Turkey's most populated city.
Within weeks, hundreds more were unearthed. Health and environment officials have said the foul-smelling, leaky barrels contained carcinogenic waste, the Turkish media reported.
Environment Minister Osman Pepe said he asked prosecutors to charged the company, Unifar, under environmental codes requiring companies to measure and report the amount of waste they produce. He said the ministry already had fined Unifar twice for violations -- the last time charging 7,850 Turkish lira, or about US$6,000 (about euro5,000).
On Thursday, military police searched the company's premises and left with documents and statements from four employees responsible for disposing of chemical waste, the Anatolia news agency reported.
Unifar produces bulk pharmaceutical products. Calls to its head office for comment Thursday went unanswered.
The discovery of the some 250 barrels and 450 bags of illegally dumped waste provoked outrage in Turkey, and made front page news for weeks.
So far there has been no official announcement on what chemicals the barrels contained.
Source: Associated Press
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